Change over time of the mutagenicity in the lungs of gpt delta transgenic mice by extract of airborne particles collected from ambient air in the Tokyo metropolitan area

BACKGROUND: Previously we found that DNA adducts were accumulated in the lungs of the rats exposed to ambient air in the Tokyo metropolitan area. To examine chronological change in in vivo mutagenicity of airborne particles, extracts produced from samples of total suspended particulates (TSP) collected from urban air in 1980, 1990, and 2010 in the Tokyo metropolitan area were intratracheally administered into the lungs of gpt delta mice, and differences in mutation and mutant frequency were determined by using the gpt assay. In vivo mutations induced by the extracts were characterized and mutation hotspots were identified by DNA sequencing of the mutated gpt gene. RESULTS: Administration of the 1990 extract at a dose of 0.3 mg/animal significantly elevated total mutant frequency to 3.3-times that in vehicle control, and the in vivo mutagenicity of the extract (induced mutation frequency per milligram extract) was estimated to be 2.0- and 2.4-times higher than that of the 2010 and 1980 extract, respectively. G-to-A transition was the most common base substitution in the vehicle control mice. However, administration of the 1990 extract increased the frequency of G-to-T transversion, which is a landmark base substitution induced by oxidative stress; furthermore, when the extract was administered at a dose of 0.15 mg, the mutant and mutation frequencies of G-to-T transversion were significantly increased to frequencies comparable with those of G-to-A transition. Similar increases in the mutant and mutation frequencies of G-to-T transversion were observed after administration of the 2010 extract. Hotspots (mutation foci identified in three or more mice) of G-to-A transition mutations at nucleotides 64 and 110 were induced by the 1980, 1990, and 2010 extracts; a hotspot of G-to-T transversions at nucleotide 406 was also induced by the 2010 extract. Previously, we showed that diesel exhaust particles or their extract, as well as 1,6-dinitropyrene, administered to mice induced these hotspots of G-to-A transitions. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study suggested that mutagenesis induced by extracts produced from TSP collected in the Tokyo metropolitan area induced in vivo mutagenicity via the same mechanism underlying the induction of in vivo mutagenicity by components of diesel exhaust. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s41021-018-0113-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.