The mutagenic action of caffeine in higher organisms.

Abstract

Caffeine is a purine, l, 3, 7-trimethyl xanthine. Since it is consumed in great quantities by man, the question concerning whether it is a mutagen for man is of great significance. There is now good evidence that caffeine is mutagenic not only in bacteria (4, 5, 7, 9,18), fungi (6,41), and plants (11, 12), but equally mutagenic in Drosophila melanogaster [2, 16, 25, 29; negative reports, (40)], in mice [Kuhlmann and Ostertag 1968, unpublished; negative report, (15); ambiguous results, (3)], as well as in human cells in vitro (24, 26, 28; Jacobson, unpublished). There is some evidence that caffeine inhibits dark repair in bacteria (38) as well as in mammalian cells (33; Jacobson, C., unpublished). Caffeine is teratogenic in mice if high doses are applied (17). There is no evidence that caffeine is involved in carcinogenesis. We have good evidence from studies with Drosophila melanogaster that caffeine also causes somatic damage by breakage of chromosomes in somatic cells (29). By analogy with the action of radiation, which causes the same type of somatic damage (23; Ostertag, unpublished data), we have good reason to assume that caffeine induces premature aging in Drosophila.