ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION The in vitro micronucleus assay is emerging in the field of genetic toxicology. Increased interest in this assay is the result of recent advances that have produced a method that provides an easy, quick, and inexpensive assessment of many types of cytogenetic damage, including clastogenic and aneugenic events. In addition, the in vitro micronucleus assay allows for the simultaneous assessment of several measures of toxicity, including cell proliferation and cell death (apoptosis), on the same slide. In this chapter, the in vitro micronucleus assay is described and particular attention is paid to how this emerging assay contrasts to the analysis of chromosomes in the standard in vitro metaphase assay, which has been used for decades and is currently required for regulatory purposes (1).
