Yoshiharu Hisamatsu

Mutagenicity of the photochemical reaction products of pyrene with nitrogen dioxide

The mutagenicity of the photochemical reaction products of pyrene with nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and the mutagens in them were investigated for the interpretation of their biological significance as genetoxic hazards of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in airborne particles. Samples extracted from the photochemical reaction products of pyrene with NO2 diluted with air using a high-pressure mercury lamp were mutagenic for Salmonella typhimurium strains TA97 and TA98 in the absence of S9 mix, with a trend to detoxification in the presence of the metabolic system. The mutagens in the crude samples extracted from their products, which were fractionated by normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on a column of Nucleosil 100-30 with n-hexane-benzene as an eluting solution, were analyzed by HPLC, mass spectrometry and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometry. Based on these results, it was recognized that 1-nitropyrene (1-NP), 1,3-dinitropyrene (1,3-DNP), 1,6-dinitropyrene (1,6-DNP) and 1,8-dinitropyrene (1,8-DNP) was formed by the photochemical reaction of pyrene with NO2. The yield of DNPs peaked at 2-3 h irradiation.

Mutagenicity of the reaction products of carbazole in the presence of nitrogen dioxide and nitrocarbazole

The mutagenicity of the photochemical reaction products of carbazole in the presence of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and nitrocarbazole was investigated using a high-pressure mercury lamp (100 W). Samples extracted from the photochemical reaction products of carbazole with NO2 were more mutagenic than those of acridine and phenazine with NO2 for Salmonella typhimurium strain TA98 in the absence of S9 mix with a trend toward detoxification in the presence of the metabolic system. The mutagenicity of the photochemical reaction products of carbazole with NO2 were higher than those of the reaction products of carbazole with a mixture of NO2 and sulfur dioxide (SO2) and no irradiation. Mononitro- and dinitro-carbazole in the samples extracted from the reaction products were analyzed by mass spectrometry. It was suggested that mononitrocarbazole, which seemed to be weakly mutagenic, and dinitrocarbazole were readily formed by the reaction of carbazole with NO2, and that the other high-potency mutagens were formed by the photochemical reaction of carbazole with NO2 with irradiation by light.