Induction of DNA damage by urethane in mouse testes: DNA binding and unscheduled DNA synthesis

The extent and persistence of DNA damage and repair were investigated in mouse spermatogenic cells exposed in vivo to urethane (ethyl carbamate, EC). Adult male mice exposed to [3H]EC at 10-1,000 mg/kg were sacrificed 12 hr later. EC/metabolite binding to liver and testicular DNA and to sperm heads from the vasa deferentia was measured. Other male mice were exposed to EC at 50-750 mg/kg, and unscheduled DNA synthesis (UDS) induction was investigated in early spermatid stages. Similar experiments were conducted with vinyl carbamate (VC; putative EC metabolite) at 10-75 mg/kg. [3H]EC bound to liver and testicular DNA and to whole sperm heads. Testicular DNA binding increased linearly with dose, although binding was at least 2 orders of magnitude lower than with liver DNA. Sperm head binding also increased linearly with dose. Dose response studies with the UDS assay showed that EC and VC induced a small but significant increase of the UDS response in early spermatid stages. However, the induced UDS responses were quite variable and did not consistently increase with the administered dose. To determine the time kinetics of UDS induction, [3H]dThd was injected at various times after treatment with 500 mg/kg of EC or 60 mg/kg of VC. A slight but significant UDS increase was observed 4 hr after treatment with EC but not with VC. Overall, these results suggest that EC metabolites bind to testis DNA and cause low-level DNA damage in mouse spermatogenic cells. This type of DNA damage apparently does not have significant genetic consequences.