Abstract
SINCE Kinosita1 first showed that rats developed malignant tumours of the liver when fed a deficient diet containing N,N-dimethyl-p-aminoazobenzene (butter-yellow), much work has been done in an attempt to elucidate the mechanism whereby this azo-dye brings about neoplastic changes in liver tissue. One aspect studied has been the metabolism of the dye itself; Stevenson, Dobriner and Rhoads2 were able to isolate p-aminophenol and p-phenylenediamine, and also their N-acetylation products, from the urine of rats receiving the dye orally. Thus the azo-link is split as in the case of o-aminoazotoluene3 and other azo-compounds in the animal body. However, the absence of N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylene-diamine from fractions prepared without addition of sodium hydrosulphite suggested that complete demethylation occurs at some stage prior to the acetylation of the p-phenylenediamine. This lability of the N-methyl groups has been neatly demonstrated by Jacobi and Baumann4, who found butter-yellow could function like other methyl-donors in protecting young rats against kidney lesions when on a choline-free diet.
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References
Kinosita, Trans. Jap. Path. Soc., 27, 665 (1937).
Stevenson, Dobriner and Rhoads, Cancer Res., 2, 160 (1942).
Hashimoto, Gann., 29, 306 (1935).
Jacobi and Baumann, Cancer Res., 2, 175 (1942).
Kensler, Dexter and Rhoads, Cancer Res., 2, 1 (1942).
Law, Cancer Res., 1, 397 (1941).
Miller, Miner, Rusch and Baumann, Cancer Res., 1, 699 (1941).
Kensler, Young and Rhoads, J. Biol. Chem., 143, 465 (1942).
Potter, Cancer Res., 2, 688 (1942).
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KIRBY, A. Carcinogenic Effect of Aminoazobenzene. Nature 154, 668–669 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154668a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154668a0
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