Sister Chromatid Exchanges in Cultured Amniocytes Exposed to Diagnostic Ultrasound in Vitro

Abstract

An in vitro system has been set up to study the possible genetic effects of diagnostic ultrasound (US) on the developing fetus. Amniotic cells were cultured by the in situ technique. Well established clones were exposed to US for various lengths of time using a linear array transducer within a sound transparent apparatus. Cells were then grown in the presence of 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine and processed for scoring the number of sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) as the cytogenetic endpoint. There was no linear relationship between the SCE frequency and the duration of US exposure. Variance analysis showed that only interindividual variability was a significant component of total variation. Neither the main effect of treatment nor the interaction effect were statistically significant. The data suggest that US delivered from a diagnostic unit to actively growing cultured fetal cells in a system closely mimicking the conditions of US exposure during amniocentesis does not induce SCE.

Keywords

Fetus,ultrasound —,amniocytes ultrasound,biological effects —,tissue characteristics

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine: AIUM — NEMA safety standard for diagnostic ultrasound equipment. J. Ultrasound Med. Suppl. 2 (1983).

American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine: Bioeffects considerations for the safety of diagnostic ultrasound. J. Ultrasound Med. Suppl. 7 (1988).

Armitage

: Statistical methods in medical research. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford 1971.

Carrera

Orsini

Terzoli

Brambati

Simoni

: Sister chromatid exchanges in first-trimester chorionic villi after in vivo and in vitro exposure to diagnostic ultrasound. Prenat. Diagn. 10 (1990), 141.

Crum

L. A.

Walton

A. J.

Mortimer

Dyson

Crawford

D. C.

Gaitan

D. F.

: Free radical production in amniotic fluid and blood plasma by medical ultrasound. J. Ultrasound Med. 6 (1987), 643.

Goss

: Sister chromatid exchange and ultrasound. J. Ultrasound Med. 3 (1984), 463.

Liebeskind

Bases

Mendez

Elequin

Koenigsberg

: Sister chromatid exchanges in human lymphocytes after exposure to diagnostic ultrasound. Science 205 (1979), 1273.

Lundberg

Jerominski

Livingston

Kochenour

Lee

Fineman

: Failure to demonstrate an effect of in vivo diagnostic ultrasound on sister chromatid exchange frequency in amniotic fluid cells. Am. J. Med. Genet. 11 (1982), 31.

Nyborg

W. L.

: Optimization of exposure conditions for medical ultrasound. Ultrasound Med. Biol. 11 (1985), 245.

10.

Sandberg

A. A.

: Sister chromatid exchanges. Liss. New York 1982.

11.

Seghal

Sutherland

R. G.

Verral

R. E.

: Optical spectra of sonoluminescence from transient and stable cavitation in water satured with various gases. J. Phys. Chem. 84 (1980), 388.

12.

Shulman

L. P.

Tharapel

A. T.

Simpson

J. L.

Elias

: Sister chromatid exchange (SCE) frequencies differ between directly prepared cytotrophoblasts and cultured mesenchymal core cells. Hum. Genet. 87 (1991), 734.

13.

Wells

P. N. T.

: The prudent use of diagnostic ultrasound. Br. J. Radiol. 59 (1986), 1143.

14.

World Health Organization: Environmental health criteria 22. Ultrasound. WHO, Geneva 1982.

15.

Wolf

: Sister chromatid exchange. John Wiley & Sons, New York 1982.

16.

Zheng

H. Z.

Mitter

N. S.

Chudley

A. E.

: In vivo exposure to diagnostic ultrasound and in vitro assay of sister chromatid exchanges in cultured amniotic fluid cells. IRCS J. Med. Sci. 9 (1981), 491.