Establishment of the micronucleus assay in the human hepatoma cell line HepG2 to identify genotoxic natural products

Alternative therapies become more and more popular. Indeed a lot of herbal preparations are hardly toxicologically analysed. According to the OECD guideline [1] the cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay (CBMN assay) has been established in the human hepatoma cell line HepG2 to identify genotoxic natural products. The CBMN assay is used to detect chemicals, which generate structural (clastogenic) or numeric (aneugenic) chromosome aberrations that are manifested in the formation of so-called micronuclei. Micronuclei originate from chromosome fragments or whole chromosomes that are unable to migrate with the rest of the chromosomes during the anaphase of cell division.