Chemical Mutagens. Principles and Methods for their Detection

Abstract

Book reviews Biochemistry. The first chapter by Merrill Chase is a historical view of the immunology of skin reactions given from his personal perspective. The remaining 19 chapters are written in the more usual, impersonal style of scientific writing and cover a wide range of immunological topics. If there is a pattern in the choice of topics it is not obvious, nor is there any apparent logic in the order of the reviews. Nevertheless, most of the reviews are up to date (including 1984 references) and well endowed with references. The topics include fundamental aspects of immunology, for example, Ia gene expression, B lymphocyte differentiation, mechanisms of lymphocyte mediated cytotoxicity, and T lymphocyte receptors, as well as disease related topics, such as pemphigus, myasthenia gravis, diabetes, and perhaps inevitably chapters on both human T cell leukaemia viruses and the immunology of AIDS. This is certainly not the sort of book to read from cover to cover, but it should provide a valuable source for teachers and researchers who need a current account of any of the selected topics. N MA-rTHEWS Fragile Sites on Human Chromosomes By Grant R Sutherland and Frederick Hecht. (Pp 280; figures + tables. £40-00.) Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1985.

Sister chromatid exchange induction near the baseline with low doses of the alkylating agent ccnu

“…Sister chromatid exchange (SCE) is a relatively sensitive system for detecting genotoxic effects [Latt and Schreck, 1980;Perry, 1979;Wolff, 19771 and is especially useful as part of a battery of in vitro mutagenicity assays. SCE frequency increases linearly with increasing dose for most DNA-damaging agents, although the ratio of SCE to single-gene mutation varies between agents [Carrano and Thompson, 1982; Carrano et al, 1978; Bradley et al, 19791 and SCE induction can be uncoupled from mutation under certain conditions [Jostes, 1981 ;Kaufman, 19871.…”