High binding of formic acid to biomacromolecules in mice

Abstract

As an air and water pollutant and a common metabolite of methanol, formaldehyde and acetone, formic acid has won the interest of toxicologists. Using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) associated with liquid scintillation counting (LSC), we investigated the formation and persistence of the formate induced liver/kidney DNA adducts and hemoglobin (Hb) adducts in mice to obtain more toxicological information of formic acid. Both the kidney/liver DNA adducts levels and the Hb adducts levels increase with increasing dose (10.0 μg/kg b.w. to 100.0 mg/kg b.w.) in a good log/log linear correlation. Even at the lowest dose, the number of formate-DNA adducts was so high compared with the published data of other chemicals. Adduction mechanisms are proposed.