Abstract
The male contraceptive agent gossypol was found to induce a dose related increase of DNA strand breaks in human fibroblasts in vitro at concentrations of 5 to 40 micrograms/ml. The effect was reduced in the presence of 2% fetal calf serum. A weak but reproducible increase in the SCE frequency was found in human lymphocytes treated for 1 hour in serum-free medium with 0.04 to 4 micrograms/ml of gossypol.