The Ames test was created in
the 1970s by a man name Bruce Ames. The
Ames test is a method to figure out if any chemical is a mutagen. This can be a
pesticide, food additive, etc. This also
means that it can be a potential carcinogen.
In fact, if a chemical is a mutagen its chances of being a carcinogen
are actually quiet high. One of the
bigger benefits of the Ames test is that is relatively easy, low cost, and
quick to come to results. A strain of
salmonella is used to perform the test.
The strain of bacteria already has a mutation in its DNA. Essentially these bacteria do not survive if
you do not provide them with a certain enzyme.
The organisms are not capable of creating the enzyme as they normally
would. So the next step is you interact
a chemical with these bacteria. You do
not provide the enzyme essential for them to live. So if you add this chemical to the organism,
and it lives, that means that the bacteria actually mutated to survive. In other words, that chemical is considered a
mutagen because the only reason the bacteria lived is because it mutated.
Now this does seem a little counterintuitive,
being that the most obvious mutation is actually just being alive. So after Ames found this out, we started to
test food additives. We discovered
around half of all food additives at the time were mutagens. Now Ames being the great scientist he is said
we need to also test all natural foods.
And in some cases we found that these natural foods had more carcinogens
that the unnatural ones. However these
carcinogens are far milder, mostly negligible.
Were as unnatural foods often had lower amounts of mutagens, but they
were much more potent. Ames explained this essential by siting the survival of
the fittest theory. Meaning the plants
that survived, and were not eaten by insects, were likely to have higher
mutagens. These natural mutagens for
example are produced in some cases to kill an insect that may be the thing
eating the plant. Again, this sounds
pretty counterintuitive, but this by no means is to say that natural foods are
less healthy than their pesticide sprayed counterparts. So why are mutagens often carcinogens. Well if you know anything about cancer you
know that it is result of a mutated cell reproducing. Essentially spreading the cancer or growing
the tumor the cell may be a part of. So
some mutagens can cause this down the line.
In this scenario we consider them a carcinogen, or any chemical that causes
cancer. Just recently we even listed
processed meat, as a carcinogen. In fact
there are carcinogens all around us we may not be aware of. Many cleaning products for example contain
carcinogens, but often times there effects are negligible. This can either be because they are just not
very potent, or because they are not usually ingested by humans. Overall the Ames test has revolutionized the
way we look at mutagens in our everyday lives.
It has supplied us with a huge amount of knowledge concerning the world
in which we live everyday.
