Repair of O⁶-methylguanine in rat liver DNA is enhanced by pretreatment with single or multiple doses of aflatoxin B₁

Abstract

Pretreatment of rats by the repeated administration of certain alkylating carcinogens has been shown to stimulate the removal of O6-alkylguanine from hepatic DNA. Prolonged feeding with the aromatic amide 2-acetylaminofluorene has a similar effect. In this report, aflatoxin B1, an agent from another chemically distinct class of carcinogen, is shown to be capable of stimulating the repair of O6-methylguanine in hepatic DNA. The sensitivity of this system is shown by the fact that this repair response can be fully stimulated as early as 1 day after treatment with a single dose.