Metabolism and binding to cellular macromolecules of a series of hydrocarbons by mouse embryo cells in culture

✍ Scribed by Margaret Duncan; P. Brookes; A. Dipple

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1969
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 517 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.2910040610

✦ Synopsis

A series of eight tritium-labelled polycyclic hydrocarbons were incubated in the presence of monolayer cultures of primary mouse embryo cells, and the time-course of their metabolism to water-soluble derivatives was studied. All the hydrocarbons, both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic, were metabolized at approximately the same rate when a low concenrratiotz of the order of 0.05 p M was used. The binding of the various hydrocarbons to cellular DNA, R N A and protein was determined and a " binding index " calculated, i.e., the extent of reaction of the hydrocarbon with the particular macromolecule resulting from the metabolism of I mpmole of hydrocarbon per ml of medium to which the cells were exposed. While no very significant difference between the various hydrocarbons was found for the protein binding index, the D N A and R N A binding indices divided the compounds into two groups. One group with a high binding index consisted of potent carcinogens while the other group had much lower (one tenth) values for the binding index. With the exception of dibenz [a,h]anthracene, this latter group consisted of non-carcinogens.