Ethidium bromide (-> Ames test)

[Roland Hübner]

In article <170720012125260261%dmicklem at cmgm.nospam.invalid>, David 
Micklem <dmicklem at cmgm.nospam.invalid> wrote:

> In article <3b544827$1 at news.uia.ac.be>, Roland Hubner
> <roland.hubner at ua.ac.be> wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > If sodium azide has been so well studied, I suspect that for EtBr 
> >(highly mutagenic to procaryotes! -- bacteria in Ames test etc.) some 
> >published work should be around, right?
> 
> Ah, the hysteria surrounding ethidium bromide! How many of you out
> there know grad students who have given themselves a 'sunburn' on the
> shortwave UV gel box (UV exposure = well established risk factor for
> melanoma) while being ultra-paranoid about the ethidium bromide
> (apparently an acute irritant, but evidence for other harmful effects
> seems elusive).
> 
> Does anyone have a reference for the Ames test result for ethidium
> bromide? The MSDS lists Ethidium bromide as:
> carcinogenicity - NTP: No
> carcinogenicity - IARC: No
> carcinogenicity - OSHA: No
> 
>  but doesn't seem to mention the Ames test.
> 
> 
> Now I realise that carcinogenicity is not equivalent to mutagenicity
> but still...
> 
> Also, I believe EthBr binds rather well to proteins, so it may be
> unlikely to make it through the skin, let alone into the nucleus.
> 
> Someone else mentioned they'd heard of its use as an anti-sleeping
> sickness therapeutic drug (for cattle). I think that is documented in
> the Merck Index but I don't have access to a copy at the moment. It
> would be interesting to know whether anyone ever looked for/found
> adverse effects on the cattle.
> 
> David


Hi David,

 check out refs in:

Singer VL, Lawlor TE, Yue S. "Comparison of SYBR Green I nucleic acid 
gel stain mutagenicity and ethidium bromide mutagenicity in the 
Salmonella/mammalian microsome reverse mutation assay (Ames test)" 
Mutat Res 1999 Feb 2;439(1):37-47

Greetings,
 Roland