Effect of butylated hydroxyanisole pretreatment on in vitro hepatic aflatoxin B1-DNA binding and aflatoxin B1-glutathione conjugation in rats.

The effect of 3(2)-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyanisole (BHA) pretreatment of rats on both in vitro hepatic aflatoxin B1 (AFB1)-DNA binding and AFB1-glutathione (AFB1-SG) conjugation has been examined. For these studies, young male F344 rats were fed AIN-76 A diet with or without 0.75% BHA for 2 weeks. There were no significant differences either in microsomal cytochrome P-450 content or microsome-mediated exogenous DNA binding to AFB1 with cytochrome P-450 from control or BHA-treated animals. There were large differences in reduced glutathione S-transferase activity with treated cytosols showing 2.5-fold higher activity than the controls. Hepatic reduced glutathione levels were 25% higher in treated than in controls. Kinetics of cytosolic inhibition of microsome-mediated AFB1-DNA binding and formation of AFB1-SG conjugate when examined at two levels of AFB1 (2 and 10 microM) and a 4-fold range of cytosolic concentrations showed that inhibition of AFB1-DNA binding was greater with cytosol from the treated compared to the controls. However, AFB1-SG conjugation was 3- to 4-fold greater in treated than in controls. Inhibition of AFB1-DNA binding by cytosol was reversed in the presence of 1 mM level of various epoxides with concomitant inhibition of AFB1-SG conjugation. In reconstitution studies with 2 microM AFB1, intact nuclei alone from either group did not yield significant amounts of either DNA binding or AFB1-SG conjugation. However, addition of microsomes from either group to these nuclei generated a large amount of AFB1-DNA binding (82-111 pmol) and a smaller amount of AFB1-SG conjugate (9-28 pmol). The presence of cytosols from the control group reduced AFB1-DNA binding to a much lesser extent than the cytosols from the treated group. However, AFB1-SG conjugation was much higher with the cytosol from treated than with the controls. These reconstitution studies with endogenous DNA show more AFB1-DNA binding with the control than with BHA-treated animals and are in agreement with the studies in vivo. It appears that induced levels of cytosolic reduced glutathione S-transferase modulate AFB1-DNA binding and AFB1 hepatocarcinogenesis.