Genetic toxicity assessment: employing the best science for human safety evaluation part IV: Recommendation of a working group of the Gesellschaft fuer Umwelt-Mutationsforschung (GUM) for a simple and straightforward approach to genotoxicity testing.

Based on new scientific developments and experience of the regulation of chemical compounds, a working group of the Gesellschaft fuer Umweltmutationsforschung (GUM), a German-speaking section of the European Environmental Mutagen Society, proposes a simple and straightforward approach to genotoxicity testing. This strategy is divided into basic testing (stage I) and follow-up testing (stage II). Stage I consists of a bacterial gene mutation test plus an in vitro micronucleus test, therewith covering all mutagenicity endpoints.

The use of in vitro data in risk assessment.

Describing the toxicological profile of a substance is the first step required for risk assessment. Although a wide range of in vitro methods are widely used to characterise toxicological properties including toxicokinetics, regulatory acceptance is mainly confined to in vitro tests which investigate genotoxic end-points. In vitro tests have been proposed for the endpoints acute toxicity, repeated dose toxicity and toxicity to reproduction which encompass the minimum requirements in the OECD SIDS programme.

The use of toxicodynamics in risk assessment.

Risk assessment of xenobiotics is a qualitative and quantitative assessment of toxic properties conventionally based on data resulting from tests in animals exposed to the substance. The assessment of dose-effect relationship includes evaluation of exposure at the site of action. More recently, emphasis is put on understanding the relationship between exposure at the site of action and the resulting effect, i.

The potential use of mutation spectra in cancer related genes in genetic toxicology: a statement of a GUM working group.

In recent years, there has been widespread interest in the relationship between carcinogenic exposure and mutation spectra in cancer-related genes. To evaluate potential benefits and/or limitations in the use of mutation spectra in genetic toxicology, a GUM working group has been established to discuss this subject. Based on methodological possibilities and limitations, the impact of mutation spectra in the interpretation of animal experiments and in the identification of etiological agents in human cancer has been considered.