Mutagenicity Studies of Five 4-Quinolone Antibiotics in Salmonella, Drosophila and Cultred Chinese Hamster Lung (CHL) Cells

-4-Quinolone antibiotics (pefloxacin, ciprofloxacin, norfoxacin, ofloxacin and enoxacin) were tested for mutagenicity in Salmonella typhimurium TA98, TA100, TA1535, TA1537, TA1538 and TA102, for chromosomal aberrations in cultured Chinese hamster lung (CHL) cells, and for wing somatic mutations and recombinations (wing spot) in Drosophila. Five 4-quinolones did not show any mutagenicity in Salmonella typhimurium TA98, TA100, TA1535, TA1537 and TA1538. However, they were mutagenic inSalmonella typhimurium TA102 with and without metabolic activation in both plate incorporation method and preincubation method. Ciprofloxacin induced structural chromosome aberrations in CHL cells both with and without metabolic activation, and the frequencies were 6% and up to 28%, respectively. Pefloxacin showed equivocal evidence, however, norfloxacin, ofloxacin and enoxacin did not induce the structural chromosome aberrations both in the presence and absence of metabolic activation. In the wing spot assay in Drosophila, ofloxacin increased the frequency of small single spots significantly in a dose-dependent manner but there was no dose-dependent increase of single or twin spots in the others.