Generation of hydrogen peroxide and superoxide anion from active metabolites of naphthylamines and aminoazo dyes: its possible role in carcinogenesis.

Autoxidation of active metabolites of naphthylamine and aminoazo dyes in neutral buffer generated hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and superoxide anion (O-.2), as detected by the titanium sulfate method and nitro blue tetrazolium method, respectively. 2-Amino-1-naphthol, 1-amino-2-naphthol, 1-amino-4-naphthol, N-hydroxy-2-aminonaphthalene, N-hydroxy-1-aminonaphthalene, N-hydroxy-4-aminoazobenzene and N-hydroxy-4-methylaminoazobenzene generated H2O2 and O-.2, whereas 1-nitrosonaphthalene, 2-nitrosonaphthalene, 1-naphtylamine, 2-naphthylamine and non-carcinogenic aminonaphthols and naphthols generated no active oxygens. Catalase and superoxide dismutase were used to identify the formation of these active oxygens. For all compounds tested except nitrosonaphthalenes, good parallelism was found between the active oxygen formation and convertibility to free radicals. These results suggest a possible role of free radicals and subsequently formed active oxygens in aromatic amine carcinogenesis.