Metabolic activation of heterocyclic amine food mutagens in the mammary gland of lactating Fischer 344 rats.

We investigated the ability of the mammary gland to metabolically activate 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (IQ), 2-amino-3,8-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]-quinoxaline (MeIQx) and 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP). Although mammary gland microsomes had almost no capacity to metabolically activate the parent compounds, mammary gland cytosol was able to esterify the N-hydroxylamines. Acetyltransferase was the primary enzyme responsible for the phase II activation of the N-hydroxylamines. The level of acetyl CoA-stimulated binding when N-hydroxy PhIP served as the substrate was approximately 3- and 17-fold higher than when IQ and MeIQx served as substrates, respectively. N-Hydroxy-IQ and N-hydroxy PhIP can also be activated by tRNA synthetase and phosphatase, but not by sulfotransferase. However, the levels of proline- and ATP-enhanced DNA binding was approximately 30- and 60-fold lower than the acetyl CoA-enhanced DNA binding of IQ and PhIP, respectively. Differences observed in the phase II activation of the various heterocyclic amines in the mammary gland may explain why the mammary gland is a target organ for PhIP-induced carcinogenicity but not for IQ- or MeIQx-induced carcinogenicity in Fischer 344 rats.