The action of the tumour promoter, TPA, on mutagenesis induced by different agents (UV light, chemical and viral mutagens)

Abstract The present paper deals with effects of 12- O -tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) on the frequency of induced mutations to 6-mercaptopurine (6MP) and ouabain resistance in Chinese hamster and mouse cells. UV light, bovine adenovirus 3(BAV-3) and 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) were used as mutagens. TPA was shown to raise the frequency of gene mutations induced by UV light and BAV-3 but it did not enhance the mutagenic effect of BrdU. We also examined the ability of BAV-3 and BrdU to induced tumours in mice. BrdU was shown to have no carcinogenic effect. The results suggest that TPA enhances the mutagenic effect only for carcinogenic mutagens.