Levamisole does not produce chromosome fractures

Levamisole is a drug chemically related to metronidazole. Metronidazole produces chromosome alterations in animals and humans. The aim of this work was to investigate if levamisole could produce chromosome fractures in mice. Levamisole and metronidazole were injected daily during five days, subcutaneously, at pharmacological doses of 2.5 and 6.2 microgram per g of body weight respectively to BALB/c mice. Three injected and control mice were sacrificed each day and chromosome studies were performed with hematopoietic sternum cells. In control mice, forty acchrocentric chromosomes were found without fractures. Metronidazole-injected mice showed increasing percentages of chromosome fractures from the first to the fifth day of the study: 0, 1.46, 1.72, 7.70 and 9.10. Levamisole-injected mice did not show chromosome fractures at that time.