[Assessment of the mutagenic effect of maternal factors on human chorionic villi by micronucleus test].

Rapid determination of DNA damage by micronucleus test is well accepted. Animal bone marrow cells or human peripheral lymphocytes used in most studies could not directly reflect the influence of the mutagenic effect on the offsprings by environmental factors. Human chorionic villi micronucleus test to detect directly the mutagenic effect of environmental factors has not been reported in the literature. Direct determination of human chorionic villi micronuclei (CVMN) was established in our laboratory, to study the mutagenic effect of mother's age, gravidity, gestation age, abortion history, contraception (condom, diaphragm, rhythm, oral contraceptives, spermicide or IUD), smoking and drinking on the offsprings. Cross investigation and micronucleus test were used in 507 couples undergoing artificial abortion. Micronuclei were scored according to Countryman's standard 2,000 interphases were observed in each subject for CVMN frequency (%). Arcsine transformation (arcsine [Sqr (P)]) was used in transforming CVMN frequency and the analysis of variance were used for statistics. No correlation between CVMN frequency and mother's age, gravidity, gestation age, abortion history, and contraception was found. Neither smoking nor drinking habit was found among the women of this study. The CVMN frequency of husband smoking was 0.7645 +/- 0.0561%, of husband non-smoking-drinking was 0.5522 +/- 0.0616%, of husband drinking was 0.5667 +/- 0.2004%, of husband smoking and drinking was 0.7944 +/- 0.0754%. There was a statistical difference in CVMN frequency between husband smoking and non-smoking (F = 2.78 DF = 408 P less than 0.05). No significant difference was found between husband drinking and non-drinking.