The HPRT mutant T-cell assays for human mutagenicity monitoring

Both T-cell assays are useful for human mutagenicity monitoring. The autoradiographic assay is inexpensive, relatively short term and easily applicable to population studies. The clonal assay will provide information on the nature of spontaneous mutation in vivo and, by analysis of mutational spectra, may yield insights into induced mutational events. In addition to the characterizations noted above, we have recently shown that analysis of in vivo derived hprt mutant T-cell colonies with cDNA probes for the and T-cell receptor genes allows quantification of the number of in vivo hprt mutations that give rise to an observed collection of mutants. (Nicklas, et. al, 1985, Albertini et. al 1985b) Refinements of this assay should increase its applicability for population studies. The utility of both assays should be better defined by studying the relationship between their respective end-points. Both assays yield similar frequencies of TGr cells in individuals (Albertini, 1985), and may thus be equivalent. Future studies should answer this question.