Evaluation of the carcinogenic potency of 4 environmental polycyclic aromatic compounds following intrapulmonary application in rats.

The carcinogenic potential of 4 highly purified polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAC) was studied in the respiratory tract of rats. Using a beeswax/trioctanoin mixture as vehicle, 10, 3 and 1 mg phenanthrene (PHE), 3 and 1 mg chrysene (CHR), 0.1 mg dibenz(a,h)anthracene (DBahA) and 6, 3 and 1 mg benzo(b)naphto(2,1-d)thiophene (BNT) were injected into the lungs of 35 female Osborne-Mendel rats per group. Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP, 0.3, 0.1 and 0.03 mg) was used as the reference substance. Whereas only one squamous cell carcinoma developed at the highest PHE dose, a dose-dependent tumor incidence was found for CHR. BNT showed a carcinogenic effect similar to CHR, but an increasing incidence of neoplasms was not seen between the median and high dose. DBahA induced carcinomas in even more than half of the animals at the dose level of 0.1 mg and, therefore, has to be classified as the most potent PAC under investigation. BaP resulted in a clear dose-response relationship. According to probit analysis of the results, the carcinogenic potencies of the PAC relative to BaP (1.00) rank as follows: DBahA, 1.91; CHR, 0.03; BNT, 0.02; and PHE, 0.001. The estimated ED10- values were 0.031 mg for BaP, 0.016 mg for DBahA, 1.02 mg for CHR, 1.65 mg for BNT and 22.84 mg for PHE.