SISTER CHROMATID EXCHANGES IN HUMAN LYMPHOCYTES AFTER ANAESTHESIA WITH FLUROXENE

The potential mutagenicity of fluroxene was investigated by the sister chromatid exchange (SCE) test using lymphocytes in peripheral blood from patients before and after anaesthesia. Twenty-five female patients, aged 21-77 yr (median 36.5yr) were anaesthetized for gynaecological operations with fluroxene in nitrous oxide for 60-220 nun (median 110 min). The number of SCE per cell was the same before and immediately after anaesthesia. In 10 patients, SCE were examined 3 days later and no increase was observed. In rune of the other patients, SCE rates were identical before and after anaesthesia and 1 and 5 days later. It was concluded that there was no indication, from this test, of a mutagenic effect of short-term exposure to anaesthetic concentrations of fluroxene in nitrous oxide The possibility of a health hazard from anaesthetic agents has been discussed extensively for the last decade (reviews by Spence and Knill-Jones, 1978; Cohen, 1980; Vessey and Nunn, 1980). Experimen-tal and epidemiological studies have indicated indi-rectly that working in an environment contaminated by waste anaesthetic gases may be a health hazard, but a casual relationship has never been established. Recently, laboratory tests on mutagenicity have been used in investigations of inhalation anaesthe-tics (Baden et al., 1977; White et al., 1979; Baden and Simmon, 1980; Basler and Rohrborn, 1981). The sister chromatid exchange test is based on examination of the exchange of DNA material be-tween the two chromatids in the chromosomes in mammalian cells. An increased number of such sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) reflects the influ-ence of mutagens (Perry and Evans, 1975; Latt et al., 1979). Previous in vitro studies of inhalation anaesthetics by this test showed only the vinyl-containing compounds fluroxene, ethyl-vinyl ether and divjnyl ether increased SCE, suggesting that the vinyl moiety might be important in this capacity (White etal., 1979). The SCE test may also be useful for evaluation of exposure to potential mutagens in vivo (Latt et al.