Correlation of mutagenic potencies of various petroleum oils and oil coal tar mixtures with DNA adduct levels in vitro

Abstract

An in vitro system was utilized to measure DNA adduct-forming ability of petroleum oils and oil coal tar mixtures to define correlations between DNA adduct levels and their mutagenic potencies. The system consisted of reaction of dimethyl sulfoxide extracts of oils with calf thymus DNA in the presence of Aroclor-induced hamster liver microsomes for 30 min. Following DNA extraction, DNA adducts were measured by the nuclease P1-enhanced postlabeling assay coupled with two-dimensional polyethyleneimine (PEI)-cellulose TLC. Thin layer plates showed putative aromatic DNA adducts, with levels ranging from 60 to 1400 adducts per 10 9 DNA nucleotides. TLC mobilities suggested adducts to be aromatic compounds containing 4 or more rings. A good correlation (coefficient of correlation=0.91) was observed between DNA adduct levels and Salmonella mutagenicity for 19 oils. All 19 samples tested produced DNA adducts. To expedite the TLC procedure, adducts were resolved by one-dimensional TLC and the radioactivity measured using a mechanical scanner. Results were comparable to those obtained by two-dimensional TLC and quantification after scraping. Our data show that the in vitro incubation system coupled with the postlabeling adduct assay is a useful screening method to identify mutagenic and potentially carcinogenic oils.