Gadolinium

Endpoint summary

Key value for chemical safety assessment

Genetic toxicity in vitro

Description of key information

Under the conditions of this study the test material was considered to be non-mutagenic.

Link to relevant study records

Reference

Endpoint:

in vitro gene mutation study in bacteria

Type of information:

experimental study

Adequacy of study:

key study

Study period:

14 June 2017 to 10 July 2017

Reliability:

1 (reliable without restriction)

Rationale for reliability incl. deficiencies:

guideline study

Qualifier:

according to guideline

Guideline:

OECD Guideline 471 (Bacterial Reverse Mutation Assay)

Version / remarks:

1997

Deviations:

no

Qualifier:

according to guideline

Guideline:

EU Method B.13/14 (Mutagenicity - Reverse Mutation Test Using Bacteria)

Version / remarks:

2008

Deviations:

no

Qualifier:

according to guideline

Guideline:

EPA OPPTS 870.5100 - Bacterial Reverse Mutation Test (August 1998)

Deviations:

no

Qualifier:

according to guideline

Guideline:

JAPAN: Guidelines for Screening Mutagenicity Testing Of Chemicals

Deviations:

no

GLP compliance:

yes (incl. QA statement)

Type of assay:

bacterial reverse mutation assay

Target gene:

- Histidine requirement in the Salmonella typhimurium strains (Histidine operon).
- Tryptophan requirement in the Escherichia coli strain (Tryptophan operon).

Species / strain / cell type:

S. typhimurium TA 1535, TA 1537, TA 98 and TA 100

Details on mammalian cell type (if applicable):

- All of the strains were stored at approximately -196 °C in a Statebourne liquid nitrogen freezer
- In this assay, overnight sub-cultures of the appropriate coded stock cultures were prepared in nutrient broth and incubated at 37 °C for approximately 10 hours. Each culture was monitored spectrophotometrically for turbidity with titres determined by viable count analysis on nutrient agar plates.

Species / strain / cell type:

E. coli WP2 uvr A

Details on mammalian cell type (if applicable):

- All of the strains were stored at approximately -196 °C in a Statebourne liquid nitrogen freezer.
- In this assay, overnight sub-cultures of the appropriate coded stock cultures were prepared in nutrient broth (Oxoid Limited; lot number 1865318 05/21) and incubated at 37 °C for approximately 10 hours. Each culture was monitored spectrophotometrically for turbidity with titres determined by viable count analysis on nutrient agar plates.

Metabolic activation:

with and without

Metabolic activation system:

S9 mix

Test concentrations with justification for top dose:

- Experiment 1 Plate Incorporation Method: 1.5, 5, 15, 50, 150, 500, 1500 and 5000 µg/plate (the maximum recommended dose level was used).
- Experiment 2 – Pre-Incubation Method: 15, 50, 150, 500, 1500, 5000 µg/plate (dose range was determined by the results of Experiment 1)

Vehicle / solvent:

- Vehicle(s)/solvent(s) used: dimethyl formamide
- Justification for choice of solvent/vehicle: The test material was insoluble in dimethyl sulphoxide, dimethyl formamide and acetonitrile at 50 mg/mL, acetone at 100 mg/mL and tetrahydrofuran at 200 mg/mL in solubility checks performed in-house. The test material formed the best doseable suspension in dimethyl formamide, therefore, this solvent was selected as the vehicle.
- The test material was accurately weighed and, on the day of each experiment, appropriate dilutions prepared in dimethyl formamide by mixing on a vortex mixer. Formulated concentrations were adjusted to allow for the stated impurity content (5%) of the test material. Dimethyl formamide is considered an acceptable vehicle for use in this test system. Prior to use, the solvent was dried to remove water using molecular sieves i.e. 2 mm sodium alumino silicate pellets with a nominal pore diameter of 4 x 10^-4 µm.
- All formulations were used within four hours of preparation and were assumed to be stable for this period.

Untreated negative controls:

yes

Negative solvent / vehicle controls:

yes

True negative controls:

no

Positive controls:

yes

Positive control substance:

9-aminoacridine

N-ethyl-N-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine

benzo(a)pyrene

other: 4-Nitroquinoline-1-oxide and 2-Aminoanthracene

Details on test system and experimental conditions:

EXPERIMENT 1: PLATE INCORPORATION METHOD
- Without Metabolic Activation: 0.1 mL of the appropriate concentration of test material, solvent vehicle or appropriate positive control was added to 2 mL of molten, trace amino-acid supplemented media containing 0.1 mL of one of the bacterial strain cultures and 0.5 mL of phosphate buffer. These were then mixed and overlayed onto a Vogel Bonner agar plate. Negative (untreated) controls were also performed on the same day as the mutation test. Each concentration of the test material, appropriate positive, vehicle and negative controls, and each bacterial strain, was assayed using triplicate plates.
- With Metabolic Activation: The procedure was the same as described previously except that following the addition of the test material formulation and bacterial culture, 0.5 mL of S9 mix was added to the molten, trace amino-acid supplemented media instead of phosphate buffer.


EXPERIMENT 2: PRE-INCUBATION METHOD
- Six test material dose levels per bacterial strain were selected in Experiment 2 (15, 50, 150, 500, 1500, 5000 µg/plate) in order to achieve both four non toxic dose levels and the toxic limit of the test material following the change in test methodology from plate incorporation to pre-incubation.
- Without Metabolic Activation: 0.1 mL of the appropriate bacterial strain culture, 0.5 mL of phosphate buffer and 0.1 mL of the test material formulation, solvent vehicle or 0.1 mL of appropriate positive control were incubated at 37 ± 3°C for 20 minutes (with shaking) prior to addition of 2 mL of molten, trace amino-acid supplemented media and subsequent plating onto Vogel Bonner plates. Negative (untreated) controls were also performed on the same day as the mutation test employing the plate incorporation method. All testing for this experiment was performed in triplicate.
- With Metabolic Activation: The procedure was the same as described previously except that following the addition of the test material formulation and bacterial strain culture, 0.5 mL of S9 mix was added to the tube instead of phosphate buffer, prior to incubation at 37 ± 3°C for 20 minutes (with shaking) and addition of molten, trace amino-acid supplemented media. All testing for this experiment was performed in triplicate.


INCUBATION AND SCORING
- All of the plates were incubated at 37 ± 3°C for approximately 48 hours and scored for the presence of revertant colonies using an automated colony counting system. The plates were viewed microscopically for evidence of thinning (toxicity). Several manual counts were required due to revertant colonies spreading slightly, thus distorting the actual plate count.

Evaluation criteria:

ACCEPTABILITY CRITERIA
The reverse mutation assay may be considered valid if the following criteria are met:
- All bacterial strains must have demonstrated the required characteristics as determined by their respective strain checks.
- All tester strain cultures should exhibit a characteristic number of spontaneous revertants per plate in the vehicle and untreated controls (negative controls). Acceptable ranges are presented as follows; TA1535: 7 to 40, TA100: 60 to 200, TA1537: 2 to 30, TA98: 8 to 60 and WP2uvrA: 10 to 60.
- All tester strain cultures should be in the range of 0.9 to 9 x 10^9 bacteria per mL.
- Diagnostic mutagens (positive control chemicals) must be included to demonstrate both the intrinsic sensitivity of the tester strains to mutagen exposure and the integrity of the S9-mix. All of the positive control chemicals used in the study should induce marked increases in the frequency of revertant colonies, both with or without metabolic activation.
- There should be a minimum of four non-toxic test material dose levels.
- There should be no evidence of excessive contamination.


EVALUATION CRITERIA
There are several criteria for determining a positive result. Any, one, or all of the following can be used to determine the overall result of the study:
- A dose-related increase in mutant frequency over the dose range tested.
- A reproducible increase at one or more concentrations.
- Biological relevance against in-house historical control ranges.
- Statistical analysis of data as determined by UKEMS
- Fold increase greater than two times the concurrent solvent control for any tester strain (especially if accompanied by an out of historical range response (Cariello and Piegorsch, 1996)).
- A test material will be considered non-mutagenic (negative) in the test system if the above criteria are not met

Statistics:

Statistical significance was confirmed by using Dunnetts Regression Analysis (* = p < 0.05) for those values that indicate statistically significant increases in the frequency of revertant colonies compared to the concurrent solvent control.

Key result

Species / strain:

S. typhimurium, other: TA98, TA100, TA1535 and TA1537

Metabolic activation:

with and without

Genotoxicity:

negative

Cytotoxicity / choice of top concentrations:

no cytotoxicity nor precipitates, but tested up to recommended limit concentrations

Vehicle controls validity:

valid

Untreated negative controls validity:

valid

Positive controls validity:

valid

Key result

Species / strain:

E. coli WP2 uvr A

Metabolic activation:

with and without

Genotoxicity:

negative

Cytotoxicity / choice of top concentrations:

no cytotoxicity nor precipitates, but tested up to recommended limit concentrations

Vehicle controls validity:

valid

Untreated negative controls validity:

valid

Positive controls validity:

valid

Additional information on results:

- Prior to use, the master strains were checked for characteristics, viability and spontaneous reversion rate (all were found to be satisfactory). The amino acid supplemented top agar and the S9-mix used in both experiments was shown to be sterile. The test material formulation was also shown to be sterile. These data are not given in the report.
- Results for the negative controls (spontaneous mutation rates) were considered to be acceptable. These results were from concurrent untreated control plates performed on the same day as the Mutation Test.
- The vehicle (dimethyl formamide) control plates gave counts of revertant colonies within the normal range. All of the positive control chemicals used in the test induced marked increases in the frequency of revertant colonies, both with or without metabolic activation. Thus, the sensitivity of the assay and the efficacy of the S9-mix were validated.
- The individual plate counts, the mean number of revertant colonies and the standard deviations, for the test material, positive and vehicle controls, both with and without metabolic activation, are presented in Table 1 and Table 2.
- The maximum dose level of the test material in the first experiment was selected as the maximum recommended dose level of 5000 µg/plate. There was no visible reduction in the growth of the bacterial background lawn at any dose level, either in the presence or absence of metabolic activation (S9-mix), in the first mutation test and consequently the same maximum dose level was used in the second mutation test (plate incorporation method). Similarly there was no visible reduction in the growth of the bacterial background lawn at any dose level, either in the presence or absence of metabolic activation (S9-mix), in the second mutation test (pre-incubation method).
- A test material precipitate (particulate in appearance) was noted under a low power microscope at 5000 µg/plate, this observation did not prevent the scoring of revertant colonies.
- There were no increases in the frequency of revertant colonies recorded for any of the bacterial strains, with any dose of the test material, either with or without metabolic activation (S9-mix) in Experiment 1 (plate incorporation method). Similarly, no increases in the frequency of revertant colonies were recorded for any of the bacterial strains, with any dose of the test material, either with or without metabolic activation (S9-mix) in Experiment 2 (pre incubation method).

Table 1: Summary of Experiment 1

± S9 Mix	Concentration (µg/plate)	Mean number of colonies/plate
		Base-pair Substitution Type			Frameshift Type
		TA100	TA1535	WP2uvrA	TA98	TA1537
-	Solvent 1.5 5 15 50 150 500 1500 5000	97 106 107 110 98 107 103 98 97	18 15 20 17 17 17 19 17 16	25 22 21 21 23 24 25 22 19	22 18 19 25 21 17 21 19 20	10 10 7 10 11 10 11 12 12
+	Solvent 1.5 5 15 50 150 500 1500 5000	104 110 104 107 111 100 110 100 102	17 15 17 20 17 18 18 17 18	26 28 27 25 24 27 27 26 25	26 27 29 23 23 19 26 24 25	11 13 9 11 11 11 9 9 12
Positive Controls
-	Name	ENNG	ENNG	ENNG	4NQO	9AA
	Concentration (µg/plate)	3	5	2	0.2	80
	Mean no. colonies/plate	760	666	339	178	468
+	Name	2AA	2AA	2AA	BP	2AA
	Concentration (µg/plate)	1	2	10	5	2
	Mean no. colonies/plate	1689	339	568	230	479

ENNG = N-ethyl-N’-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine

4NQO = 4-Nitroquinoline-1-oxide

9AA = 9-aminoacridine

2AA = 2-aminoanthracene

BP = benzo(a)pyrene

Table 2: Summary of Experiment 2

± S9 Mix	Concentration (µg/plate)	Mean number of colonies/plate
		Base-pair Substitution Type			Frameshift Type
		TA100	TA1535	WP2uvrA	TA98	TA1537
-	Solvent 15 50 150 500 1500 5000	103 100 110 96 98 95 83	15 15 12 14 15 14 13	25 30 30 23 28 28 30	17 21 21 19 15 17 17	11 13 12 11 11 12 12
+	Solvent 15 50 150 500 1500 5000	84 77 101 83 84 96 90	17 16 17 16 12 17 17	32 32 32 34 33 29 32	24 23 19 24 21 22 28	9 8 13 11 11 12 9
Positive Controls
-	Name	ENNG	ENNG	ENNG	4NQO	9AA
	Concentration (µg/plate)	3	5	2	0.2	80
	Mean no. colonies/plate	1162	126	1029	320	258
+	Name	2AA	2AA	2AA	BP	2AA
	Concentration (µg/plate)	1	2	10	5	2
	Mean no. colonies/plate	961	260	222	182	327

ENNG = N-ethyl-N’-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine

4NQO = 4-Nitroquinoline-1-oxide

9AA = 9-aminoacridine

2AA = 2-aminoanthracene

BP = benzo(a)pyrene

Conclusions:

Under the conditions of this study the test material was considered to be non-mutagenic.

Executive summary:

The potential of the test material to cause mutagenic effects in bacteria was assessed in accordance with the standardised guidelines OECD 471, EU Method B.13/14, EPA OCSPP 870.5100 and Japanese Guidelines under GLP conditions.

Salmonella typhimurium strains TA1535, TA1537, TA98 and TA100 and Escherichia coli strain WP2uvrA were treated with the test material using both the Ames plate incorporation and pre-incubation methods at eight dose levels, in triplicate, both with and without the addition of a rat liver homogenate metabolising system (10% liver S9 in standard co-factors). The dose range for Experiment 1 was pre-determined and was 1.5 to 5000 µg/plate. The experiment was repeated on a separate day using fresh cultures of the bacterial strains and fresh test material formulations. The dose range was amended (15 to 5000 µg/plate) following the results of Experiment 1. Six test material concentrations were selected in Experiment 2 in order to achieve both four non toxic dose levels and the potential toxic limit of the test material following the change in test methodology.

The vehicle (dimethyl formamide) control plates gave counts of revertant colonies within the normal range. All of the positive control chemicals used in the test induced marked increases in the frequency of revertant colonies, both with or without metabolic activation. Thus, the sensitivity of the assay and the efficacy of the S9-mix were validated.

The maximum dose level of the test material in the first experiment was selected as the maximum recommended dose level of 5000 µg/plate. There was no visible reduction in the growth of the bacterial background lawn at any dose level, either in the presence or absence of metabolic activation (S9-mix), in the first mutation test and consequently the same maximum dose level was used in the second mutation test (plate incorporation method). Similarly there was no visible reduction in the growth of the bacterial background lawn at any dose level, either in the presence or absence of metabolic activation (S9-mix), in the second mutation test (pre-incubation method). 

A test material precipitate (particulate in appearance) was noted under a low power microscope at 5000 µg/plate, this observation did not prevent the scoring of revertant colonies.

There were no increases in the frequency of revertant colonies recorded for any of the bacterial strains, with any dose of the test material, either with or without metabolic activation (S9-mix) in Experiment 1 (plate incorporation method). Similarly, no increases in the frequency of revertant colonies were recorded for any of the bacterial strains, with any dose of the test material, either with or without metabolic activation (S9-mix) in Experiment 2 (pre incubation method). 

Under the conditions of this study the test material was considered to be non-mutagenic.

Endpoint conclusion

Endpoint conclusion:

no adverse effect observed (negative)

Genetic toxicity in vivo

Endpoint conclusion

Endpoint conclusion:

no study available

Additional information

Ames Test

The potential of the test material to cause mutagenic effects in bacteria was assessed in accordance with the standardised guidelines OECD 471, EU Method B.13/14, EPA OCSPP 870.5100 and Japanese Guidelines under GLP conditions. The study was awarded a reliability score of 1 in accordance with the criteria set forth by Klimisch et al. (1997).

Salmonella typhimurium strains TA1535, TA1537, TA98 and TA100 and Escherichia coli strain WP2uvrA were treated with the test material using both the Ames plate incorporation and pre-incubation methods at eight dose levels, in triplicate, both with and without the addition of a rat liver homogenate metabolising system (10 % liver S9 in standard co-factors). The dose range for Experiment 1 was pre-determined and was 1.5 to 5000 µg/plate. The experiment was repeated on a separate day using fresh cultures of the bacterial strains and fresh test material formulations. The dose range was amended (15 to 5000 µg/plate) following the results of Experiment 1. Six test material concentrations were selected in Experiment 2 in order to achieve both four non toxic dose levels and the potential toxic limit of the test material following the change in test methodology.

The vehicle (dimethyl formamide) control plates gave counts of revertant colonies within the normal range. All of the positive control chemicals used in the test induced marked increases in the frequency of revertant colonies, both with or without metabolic activation. Thus, the sensitivity of the assay and the efficacy of the S9-mix were validated.

The maximum dose level of the test material in the first experiment was selected as the maximum recommended dose level of 5000 µg/plate. There was no visible reduction in the growth of the bacterial background lawn at any dose level, either in the presence or absence of metabolic activation (S9-mix), in the first mutation test and consequently the same maximum dose level was used in the second mutation test (plate incorporation method). Similarly there was no visible reduction in the growth of the bacterial background lawn at any dose level, either in the presence or absence of metabolic activation (S9-mix), in the second mutation test (pre-incubation method). 

A test material precipitate (particulate in appearance) was noted under a low power microscope at 5000 µg/plate, this observation did not prevent the scoring of revertant colonies.

There were no increases in the frequency of revertant colonies recorded for any of the bacterial strains, with any dose of the test material, either with or without metabolic activation (S9-mix) in Experiment 1 (plate incorporation method). Similarly, no increases in the frequency of revertant colonies were recorded for any of the bacterial strains, with any dose of the test material, either with or without metabolic activation (S9-mix) in Experiment 2 (pre incubation method). 

Under the conditions of this study the test material was considered to be non-mutagenic.

Justification for classification or non-classification

In accordance with the criteria for classification as defined in Annex I, Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008, the substance does not require classification with respect to genetic toxicity.