Biological monitoring of acrylonitrile exposure through a new analytical approach to hemoglobin and plasma protein adducts and urinary metabolites in rats and humans.

A new, simple and fast procedure of measuring acrylonitrile (ACN) in ACN derived mercapturic acids such as S-(2-cyanoethyl)-L-cysteine(CyEC), and in hemoglobin (Hb) and plasma protein adducts and urinary metabolites in rats and humans exposed to ACN was developed. ACN in mercapturic acids or proteins was analyzed by capillary gas chromatography (GC) by liberating ACN at a high-temperature in the injector port of GC with or without oxidizing sulfur atoms of the ACN-bound cysteines into sulfoxide form by hydrogen peroxide in vitro. At 350 degrees C, more than 90% of ACN in authentic CyEC was recovered by this method. Increasing a single ip dose of ACN from 5 to 50 mg/kg produced proportional increases in ACN bound to Hb 24 hr after the treatment. The alkylation of plasma protein with ACN was about 1/10 as low as that of Hb. After repeated daily ip doses of 1-10 mg/kg, ACN in Hb decreased with a half-life of about 9 days. ACN was also detected in the blood of workers exposed to ACN for 1 to 10 years at a Siberian synthetic rubber factory.