Spontaneous and induced sister chromatid exchanges in lymphocytes of healthy persons.

Spontaneous and mitomycin C-induced sister chromatid exchanges (SCEs) in lymphocytes were analyzed in 46 healthy persons. Our results suggest that the frequency of spontaneous SCE in lymphocytes is useful for evaluation of the biological effects of environmental mutagens, and that the induced-SCE test with a mutagen and lymphocytes may be used to detect persons with a high sensitivity to the mutagen.