Publicaties

Mechanistic toxicology is gaining weight for human health risk assessment. Different mechanistic assays are available, such as the comet assay, which detects DNA damage at the level of individual cells. However, the conventional alkaline version only detects strand breaks and alkali-labile sites. We have validated two modifications of the in vitro assay to generate mechanistic information: (1) use of DNA-repair enzymes (i.e., ...

The "Micronuclei and Disease" workshop was organized by the HUMN Project consortium and hosted by the European Environmental Mutagen and Genomics Society at their annual meeting in Rennes, France, on 23 May 2019. The program of the workshop focused on addressing the emerging evidence linking micronucleus (MN) frequency to human disease. The first objective was to review what has been published and evaluate the level and quality of evidence ...

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are secondary metabolites from plants that have been found in substantial amounts in herbal supplements, infusions and teas. Several PAs cause cancer in animal bioassays, mediated via a genotoxic mode of action, but for the majority of the PAs, carcinogenicity data are lacking. It is assumed in the risk assessment that all PAs have the same potency as riddelliine, which is considered to be one of the most potent ...

Aneuploidy is regarded as a hallmark of cancer, however, its role is complex with both pro- and anti-carcinogenic effects evident. In this IWGT review, we consider the role of aneuploidy in cancer biology; cancer risk associated with constitutive aneuploidy; rodent carcinogenesis with known chemical aneugens; and chemotherapy-related malignant neoplasms. Aneuploidy is seen at various stages in carcinogenesis. However, the relationship between ...

The purpose of this review is to summarise current knowledge on the molecular mechanisms by which in vivo exposure to exogenous chemical genotoxins in humans induces micronuclei (MNi) and other nuclear anomalies in lymphocytes in vivo and ex vivo after nuclear division in vitro. MNi originate from acentric chromosome fragments and/or whole chromosomes that are unable to engage with the mitotic spindle and/or fail to segregate properly to the ...