Mutagenic activity of gastric juice

Gastric juice samples from patients of a rural area of the Colombian Andes at high risk to gastric cancer were tested for mutagenesis with Salmonella typhimurium strains TA100 and TA1538. Direct mutagenic effect was found in samples with detectable amounts of nitrite. This effect was not accountable by nitrite alone. Nitrite-negative samples from the same area and samples from the low-risk area of Cali were negative using the same mutagenesis assay.