A comparison of DNA adduct formation in white blood cells and internal organs of mice exposed to benzo[a]pyrene, dibenzo[c,g]carbazole, safrole and cigarette smoke condensate.

Measurement of tissue/cell DNA adducts represents a suitable monitor of carcinogen exposure because the majority of chemical mutagens/carcinogens react with DNA, forming covalent adducts, a key event in the initiation of chemical carcinogenesis. Investigations of DNA-adduct formation in vivo in white blood cells (WBC) versus target tissues, i.e. internal organs for most carcinogens, is expected to yield useful information about the suitability of WBC for biomonitoring and risk assessment. For this purpose, female ICR mice were given 0.4 mmole/kg benzo[a]pyrene (BP), 0.045 mmole/kg dibenzo[c,g]carbazole (DBC) or 2.47 mmole/kg safrole by oral gavage or 4 daily doses (equivalent to 3 cigarettes) of cigarette-smoke condensate (CSC) by topical application. At 24 h after dosing, DNA adducts were detected by a nuclease P1-enhanced 32P-postlabeling assay [M.V. Reddy and K. Randerath, Carcinogenesis, 7 (1986) 1543] in WBC and internal tissues treated with individual carcinogens, while CSC treatment elicited aromatic adducts in most tissues but not in WBC. Adduct patterns of WBC DNA were qualitatively similar to those of internal organs, but adduct amounts varied. BP, a systemic carcinogen, bound nearly as much to WBC DNA as to target-tissue DNA samples; whereas the liver carcinogens, DBC and safrole, bound to WBC DNA considerably less (22- and 51-fold, respectively) compared with liver DNA. The number of adducts in 10(7) nucleotides of WBC, liver, lung, kidney and spleen DNA, respectively, were: 2, 5, 3, 2 and 3 with BP; 6, 131, 6, 14 and 4 with DBC; 5, 238, 3, 5 and 0.6 with safrole. For CSC, these values were 0, 1 and 0.02 in WBC, lung and spleen, respectively. Our results show that carcinogen binding to WBC DNA does not reflect binding to target-tissue DNA in a quantitative sense for the carcinogens studied except for BP, and that WBC are not suitable surrogates for monitoring CSC exposure by DNA-adduct measurement after topical application. The CSC data in mice was consistent with the previous findings in humans that smokers' tissues but not WBC show smoking-related bulky/aromatic DNA adducts, as measured by 32P-postlabeling.