Inter-laboratory consistency and variability in the buccal micronucleus cytome assay depends on biomarker scored and laboratory experience: results from the HUMNxl international inter-laboratory scoring exercise.

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Abstract

The buccal micronucleus cytome (BMNcyt) assay in uncultured exfoliated epithelial cells from oral mucosa is widely applied in biomonitoring human exposures to genotoxic agents and is also proposed as a suitable test for prescreening and follow-up of precancerous oral lesions. The main limitation of the assay is the large variability observed in the baseline values of micronuclei (MNi) and other nuclear anomalies mainly related to different scoring criteria. The aim of this international collaborative study, involving laboratories with different level of experience, was to evaluate the inter- and intra-laboratory variations in the BMNcyt parameters, using recently implemented guidelines, in scoring cells from the same pooled samples obtained from healthy subjects (control group) and from cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy (treated group). The results indicate that all laboratories correctly discriminated samples from the two groups by a significant increase of micronucleus (MN) and nuclear bud (NBUD) frequencies and differentiated binucleated (BN) cells, associated with the exposure to ionizing radiation. The experience of the laboratories was shown to play an important role in the identification of the different cell types and nuclear anomalies. MN frequency in differentiated mononucleated (MONO) and BN cells showed the greatest consistency among the laboratories and low variability was also detected in the frequencies of MONO and BN cells. A larger variability was observed in classifying the different cell types, indicating the subjectivity in the interpretation of some of the scoring criteria while reproducibility of the results between scoring sessions was very good. An inter-laboratory calibration exercise is strongly recommended before starting studies with BMNcyt assay involving multiple research centers.

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Journal

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Mutagenesis

Title: Mutagenesis

Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)

ISSN (Electronic): 1464-3804

ISSN (Print): 0267-8357

Publication date (Electronic): March 01 2017

Volume: 32

Issue: 2

Affiliations

[1 ] Environmental Carcinogenesis Unit, IRCCS AOU San Martino-IST, L.go Rosanna Benzi, 10 16132 Genoa, Italy.

[2 ] Department of Chemical Safety and Cancer Prevention, Institute of Cancer Research, Medical University of Vienna, Austria Borschkegasse 8A, 1090 Vienna, Austria.

[3 ] Clinical Epidemiology Unit, IRCCS AOU San Martino-IST, L.go Rosanna Benzi, 10 16132 Genoa, Italy.

[4 ] Environmental Toxicology Group, Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas, Kossutha 6 Street, 40-844 Katowice, Poland.

[5 ] The Witold Pilecki State School of Higher Education, Maksymiliana Kolbego 8 Street, Oswiecim 32-600, Poland.

[6 ] Mutagenesis Unit, Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Ksaverska cesta 2, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia.

[7 ] Unit of Clinical and Molecular Epidemiology, IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, Via di Val Cannuta, 247, 00166 Rome, Italy.

[8 ] Department of Human Sciences and Quality of Life Promotion, San Raffaele University, Via di Val Cannuta, 247, 00166 Rome, Italy.

[9 ] Laboratory of Genetic Toxicology, Lutheran University of Brazil (ULBRA), Av. Farroupilha, 8001, 92425-900 Canoas-RS, Brazil.

[10 ] Laboratory of Toxicogenomics and Nutrigenomics, Botucatu Medical School, UNESP - São Paulo State University, Rua Mario Rubens Montenegro, S/N, Rubião Jr, 18618-687, Botucatu-SP, Brazil.

[11 ] Universidad de los Andes Laboratorio de Genética Humana (LGH), Carrera 1E No, 18A-10 Bogotá, Colombia.

[12 ] Department of Genetic Toxicology and Cancer Biology, National Institute of Biology, Vecna pot 111, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.

[13 ] Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Toxicology, Gazi University 06330, Hipodrom, Ankara, Turkey.

[14 ] Institute of Environmental Health, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15, 1090 Vienna, Austria.

[15 ] German Federal Environment Agency, Heinrich-Heine-Straße 12, 08645 Bad Elster, Germany.

[16 ] Genome Health and Personalised Nutrition, CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, Gate 13, Kintore Avenue, South Australia 5000, Australia and.

[17 ] School of Public Health, Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health, University of California, Berkeley, 733 University Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360, USA.

Article

Publisher Item ID: gew047

DOI: 10.1093/mutage/gew047

PubMed ID: 27671865

SO-VID: 308a8abe-9d33-4876-b5c8-9b7ef37a4223

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