“…We found that radiomimetic compounds are capable of inducing translocation and amplification of ITSs [Bolzán et al, 2001;Sánchez et al, 2009Sánchez et al, , 2010 and also breakage at centromeric regions rich in ITSs; however, these chromosome regions are not the preferential target for the clastogenic action of these compounds [Sánchez et al, 2009[Sánchez et al, , 2010. Because of the presence of large blocks of heterochromatic ITS at centromeric regions on most of the chromosomes, and the fact that about 95% of the telomeric FISH signals in a CHO metaphase cell correspond to ITS, these cells represent an ideal choice for analyzing the behavior of ITS in clastogen-exposed cells [Balajee et al, 1994;Bolzán et al, 2001;Sánchez et al, 2009Sánchez et al, , 2010. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between ITSs and chromosomal aberrations induced by streptozotocin (STZ) in CHO cells 18 h after treatment to obtain further insight into the short-term effects of chemical mutagens on ITSs.…”