Table 8.

Some elements of a mechanism expert review.

Expert review elements	Considerations
1. Chemical class assay response	Information such as if the compound belongs to a chemical class that may not be suited to particular assays, for example antibiotics in the bacterial reverse mutation assay, or interaction of the test substance with selected vehicle. In such cases, the bacterial mutagenicity result might be considered inappropriate and results from mammalian cell assays should be used.
2. Mode of action	Combinations of assay results within a particular mechanistic class may provide information on the mode of action of a compound (e.g., different bacterial strains are specific for different types of mutations).
3. Alerts that predict a particular mechanism	Some alerts may provide information on the mechanism through which a compound acts.