[Cytogenetic effect of barbiturate anesthetizing substances in a human peripheral blood leukocyte culture]

It is found that hexenal and sodium thiopental in vitro produced a two-fold increase of frequency of chromosome aberrations as compared with the control and this effect was not dose-dependent. The anesthetics under study affected in vitro 3H-thymidine incorporation into DNA of lymphocytes, and a ten-fold hexenal dose intensified 3H-thymidine incorporation. The frequency of chromosome aberrations in vivo was at the level of the spontaneous mutation after use of sodium thiopental and slightly increased hexenal.