Ethylene dibromide: negative results with the mouse dominant lethal assay and the electrophoretic specific-locus test

Ethylene dibromide (1,2-dibromoethane; EDB) was tested for the induction of dominant lethal and electrophoretically-detectable specific-locus mutations in the germ cells of DBA/2J male mice. Males were treated with a single intraperitoneal injection of 100 mg/kg EDB and mated to two C57BL/6J females. In the dominant lethal assay, matings were carried out to measure the effect of EDB on meiotic and postmeiotic stages; germ cells representing spermatogonial stem cells were analyzed in the electrophoretic specific-locus test. Neither of these germ cell tests produced any evidence that EDB is a germ cell mutagen. It appears from these data and those reported in the literature that EDB, a genotoxic carcinogen that affects male fertility in some mammalian species, is not mutagenic in the germ cells of the male mouse.