Mutagenicity and cytotoxicity of benzo(a)pyrene arene oxides, phenols, quinones, and dihydrodiols in bacterial and mammalian cells.

Twenty-nine benzo(a)pyrene derivatives were tested for mutagenic acitivity without metabolic activation in Salmonella typhimurium strains TA98, TA100, and TA1538 and in Chinese hamster V79 cells. The compounds studied included 4 arene oxides, all 12 isomeric phenols, 5 quinones, and 8 dihydrodiols. Benzo(a)pyrene 4,5-oxide was the most mutagenic of the compounds tested in both the bacterial and mammalian systems. The other arene oxides [benzo(a)pyrene 7,8-, 9,10-, and 11,12-oxides] were only weakly mutagenic in the S. typhimurium strains. However, in Chinese hamster V79 cells benzo(a)pyrene 11,12-oxide. Among the phenols, 6-hydroxybenzo(a)pyrene and 12-hydroxybenzo(a)pyrene were moderately mutagenic in strain TA98 of S. typhimurium, and 6-hydroxybenzo(a)pyrene was moderately mutagenic in V79 cells. The other 10 phenols, 5 quinones [benzo(a)pyrene 1,6-, 3,6-, 4,5-, 6, 12-, and 11,12-quinones] and 8 dihydrodiols [benzo(a)pyrene cis-4,5,trans-4,5-, cis-7,8-, trans-7,8-, cis-9,10-, trans-9,10-, cis-11,12-, and trans-11, 12-dihydrodiols] were eitherinactive or only weekly mutagenic. 1-Hydroxybenzo(a)pyrene and 3-hydroxybenzo(a)pyrene were weakly mutagenic in strain TA98 of S. typhimurium, and benzo(a)pyrene 7,8-dihydrodiol was weakly mutagenic in V79 cells. Benzo(a)pyrene 11,12-quinone was extremely cytotoxic to the V79 cells but had no observable toxicity in the bacterial strains.