In the search for relevant assays for mutagenicity testing, considerable attention has been given to the use of mammalian cells in vitro and the incorporation of metabolic activation in the protocol. Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are commonly chosen as the target cells for cytogenetic tests because of their excellent growth characteristics and long lifespan in culture. However, there may be cellular factors affecting the uptake, metabolism, and repair of damage which are not the same in all cell lines. The response of CHO cells and three human diploid fibroblast strains (IMR-90, WI-38, S-3299) to benzo(a) pyrene (BP) and dimethylnitrosamine (DMN) were compared using sister chromatid exchange (SCE) analysis as a measure of genetic damage. For both BP and DMN the human cells and the CHO cells showed dose-response slopes that were significantly different from zero, except CHO cells treated with BP for 1 hr and S-3299 cells treated with DMN. Whereas human and CHO cells showed similar dose-responses to BP and the three human cell strains had similar dose-responses to BP and DMN, the dose-response of the human cells to DMN was statistically less significant than that of CHO cells. Reducing the duration of chemical treatment in CHO cells had no effect on the slope of the dose-response curves for BP or DMN. The observed differences between human and CHO cells may reflect differences in the fate of metabolic intermediates of DMN.