Abstract
IF 3,4-benzpyrene is introduced into a mouse, it is eventually excreted as the phenol 8-hydroxy-benzpyrene1,2. It has been established that this transformation proceeds by various steps3,4. Four different benzpyrene derivatives have now been separated from extracts of various fresh tissues; they are provisionally termed X1, X2, F1 and F2, because they are responsible for the 'BPX' and 'BPF' fluorescences that Peacock5 and Chalmers6 discovered in the liver, bile, intestine and fæces of various animals after application of benzpyrene. The separation of X1, X2, F1 and F2 has been effected by fluorescence chromatography and selective extraction, using alumina and silica as adsorbents and acetone, benzene, xylene, petroleum ether, methyl, ethyl and amyl alcohols and water as solvents. X1 and X2 occur in vivo not only in the liver and digestive system but also in the lung, kidney cortex, subcutaneous tissue, skin (after painting with benzpyrene), and in the mammary glands as evidenced by the milk of mice; F1 and F2 occur in the large intestine and fæces, and occasionally in the lungs. The amount of fresh uncontaminated mouse urine did not suffice for a definite analysis, but there were indications of the presence of the X derivatives. Post mortem, all X-bearing tissues show slowly increasing amounts of the F derivatives unless they are kept in formol. The 3,4-benzpyrene-5,8-quinone that Berenblum and Schoental2 discovered in the fæces never appeared in fresh tissues.
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References
Chalmers, J. G., and Crowfoot, D., Biochem. J., 35, 1270 (1940).
Berenblum, I., Crowfoot, D., Holiday, E. R., and Schoental, R., Canc. Res., 3, 151 (1943).
Weigert, F., Mottram, J. C., Biochem. J., 37, 497 (1943).
Weigert, F., Tram. Faraday Soc., 39, 418 (1943).
Peacock, P. R., Brit. J. Exper. Path., 17, 164 (1936); Amer. J. Cane, 40, 251 (1940).
Chalmers, J. G., Biochem. J., 32, 271 (1938).
Boyland, E., Levi, A., Biochem. J., 29, 2679 (1935); 30, 728 (1936).
Fieser, L. F., Univers. of Pennsylvania Bicentennial Conference (1940).
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WEIGERT, F. Metabolism of 3,4-Benzpyrene in Mice. Nature 155, 479–480 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155479c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155479c0
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