Modification of in vivo heterocyclic amine genotoxicity by dietary flavonoids.

Female BALB/c mice were fed diets containing equimolar amounts of quercetin or its glycoside, rutin, for 5 weeks. These mice were used either in host-mediated bacterial mutation assays or as sources of hepatic microsomes. In host-mediated bacterial mutation assays using radiolabelled mutagens, the heterocyclic amines 2-amino-3,5-dimethyl[4,5-f]imidazoquinoline (MeIQ) and 3-amino-1-methyl-5H-pyrido[4,3-b]indole (Trp-P-2) induced greater numbers of revertants in mice fed either of the flavonoid diets compared with control. Experiments using hepatic microsomes revealed that although feeding mice either flavonoid produced slight changes in some parameters of hepatic xenobiotic metabolism (mixed function oxidase and glutathione transferase activities), microsomes from quercetin-fed mice were more potent activators of both MeIQ and Trp-P-2 compared with microsomes from control or rutin-fed mice. This difference in microsomal ability may be due to the different biological availability of the two flavonoids within the gastrointestinal tract.