Metabolic activation to a mutagen of 3-hydroxy-trans-7,8-dihydroxy-7,8-dihydrobenzo[a]pyrene, a secondary metabolite of benzo[a]pyrene

3-Hydroxy-trans-7,8-dihydroxy-7,8-dihydrobenzo[a]pyrene (3-OH-BP-7,8-diol) was isolated from arylsulfatase/beta-glucuronidase-treated bile of rats to which 3-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene (3-OH-BP) has been administered. This triol was investigated for mutagenicity in Salmonella typhimurium (reversion to histidine prototrophy of strains TA 97, TA 98, TA 100 and TA 1537) and in V79 Chinese hamster cells (acquisition of resistance to 6-thioguanine). When no exogenous metabolizing system was added the triol was inactive, while 3-OH-BP showed weak mutagenic effects with all four bacterial strains. In the presence of NADPH-fortified postmitochondrial supernatant fraction (S9 mix) of liver homogenate fro…