Stevioside, a constituent of Stevia rebaudiana, is commonly used as a non-caloric sugar substitute in Japan. The genetic toxicities of stevioside and its aglycone, steviol, were examined with seven mutagenicity tests using bacteria (reverse mutation assay, forward mutation assay, umu test and rec assay), cultured mammalian cells (chromosomal aberration test and gene mutation assay) and mice (micronucleus test). Stevioside was not mutagenic in any of the assays examined. The aglycone, steviol, however, produced dose-related positive responses in some mutagenicity tests, i.e. the forward mutation assay using Salmonella typhimurium TM677, the chromosomal aberration test using Chinese hamster lung fibroblast cell line (CHL) and the gene mutation assay using CHL. Metabolic activation systems containing 9000 g supernatant fraction (S9) of liver homogenates prepared from polychlorinated biphenyl or phenobarbital plus 5,6-benzoflavone-pretreated rats were required for mutagenesis and clastogenesis. Steviol was weakly positive in the umu test using S.typhimurium TA1535/pSK1002 either with or without the metabolic activation system. Steviol, even in the presence of the S9 activation system, was negative in other assays, i.e. the reverse mutation assays using S.typhimurium TA97, TA98, TA100, TA102, TA104, TA1535, TA1537 and Escherichia coli WP2 uvrA/pKM101 and the rec-assay using Bacillus subtilis. Steviol was negative in the mouse micronucleus test. The genotoxic risk of steviol to humans is discussed.
The long-term (1- and 2-year) adverse tissue responses including tumor formation by subcutaneous implantation of polyurethanes (PUs) and silicone (Sil) films into rats were compared. The weight-averaged molecular weights (Mw) of the PUs prepared from 4,4'-diphenylmethanediisocyanate, poly(tetramethyleneglycol) of Mn = 1000 and 1,4-butanediol are 220,000 (U-4), 124,000 (U-6), and 55,600 (U-8). The 50:50 mixed film of U-6 and silicone (U-6/sil) was prepared by roll-mixing of the noncured silicone and the U-6 solution followed by evaporation of the solvent and heat-curing at 70 degrees C. The tissue responses around implants were classified into four groups as follows: (A) tumor, (B) atypical cell proliferation accompanied by preneoplastic changes, (C) cell proliferation without preneoplastic changes, (D) no obvious responses. In both implantation periods, the PUs gave higher incidents of the adverse responses including tumor formation in comparison to Sil. No significant molecular weight-dependent trend was found in a 1-year study using U-4, 6, and 8. Significant PU-dose-dependent trends were found in a 2-year study: the total active incidence (A+B+C), U-6(22/29) greater than U-6/sil(11/29) greater than sil(7/28); tumor incidence (A), U-6(11/29) greater than U-6/sil(2/29) = sil(2/28). No detectable amounts of 4,4'-methylenedianiline (MDA) were found in the PUs. The methanol extracts from the PUs were negative in the mutagenicity tests. These indicate no relationship between the tumor formation by the PU films and the mutagenicities of the chemicals (mainly oligomers) leached from the PUs.
Steviol is the aglycone of stevioside, a non-caloric sugar substitute commonly used in Japan. Steviol strongly induces mutations at the guanine phosphoribosyltransferase gene (gpt) of Salmonella typhimurium TM677 when the metabolic activation system (S9 mix) is present. However, it is completely negative in the reverse mutation assays using Escherichia coli WP2uvrA/pKM101 or S.typhimurium TA strains. In order to characterize the mutations induced by metabolically-activated steviol, the chromosomal gpt alleles of 24 induced (ST clones) and 16 spontaneous mutants (SP clones) of S.typhimurium TM677 were sequenced and the mutation spectra were compared. About 40% of the mutations of ST clones (nine out of 24) were localized in the region between nucleotides 280 and 330 from the starting codon ATG, whereas no mutations of SP clones were found in that region. The mutations identified in the region included transitions (three clones), transversions (four clones), a duplication and a deletion. There were no other marked differences between ST and SP clones: base-change mutations were dominant over frameshifts and deletions (ST clones, 20 versus three; SP clones, 16 versus two) and base change mutations occurred more frequently at G:C pairs rather than at A:T pairs (ST clones, 15 versus five; SP clones, 12 versus four). The possibility that metabolically-activated steviol gives pause to DNA synthesis around nucleotide 280, thereby stimulating the duplication, deletion and untargeted mutagenesis in the defined region of the gpt gene is discussed.
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