Solubility of anthracene in complex solvent systems

A very extensive and effective research in the fields of classical and molecular cytogenetics of cancer cells, during the past 10 years, has produced a rather concrete picture of the events and mechanisms rendering a normal cell a malignant one: Mutational changes in the control of so‐called cellular oncogenes play a fundamental role in cell transformation and tumor progression. These oncogenes are highly conservative and, therefore, important genes normally coding for a series of specific proteins particularly involved in growth control and differentiation processes.

The most important alterations of these genes are: (1) Point mutations (e.g. base transitions) in essential base pairs of the respective proto‐oncogenes causing an uncontrolled expression of the latter, (2) translocations of specific chromosomal segments resulting in transfer of a proto‐oncogene from its normal (controlled) location into the area of highly active genes and by that in its activation, (3) amplification of DNA sequences including proto‐oncogenes which also can cause their over‐expression, (4) insertion of retroviral oncogenes into the DNA, (5) point mutations or deletions in “control genes” rendering the respective gene mutation homozygous or hemizygous.

All these events are mutations in the strict sense the mutageneticist applies to the endpoints of his experimental studies. Above all, the fundamental importance of translocations and point mutations in the transformation process has clearly been evidenced by these data. Therefore, the design of experiments in mutagenicity testing should preferentially consider these types of mutations. Any mutagen, e.g. certain heavy metals or their compounds, inducing those types of mutations, must be considered suspicious not only concerning its mutagenicity in germ cells but also in somatic cells, and, by that, its carcinogenicity.