Bromo(monohydroxy)phenyl mercapturic acids. A new class of mercapturic acids from bromobenzene-treated rats.

Alkaline permethylation and GC/MS analysis of urinary mercapturic acids from rats given bromobenzene yielded several quinone-derived bromodimethoxythioanisole isomers as expected. Unexpectedly, seven bromomonomethoxythioanisole isomers were also observed, suggesting the presence of bromomonohydroxyphenyl mercapturic acids in the urine. Alkaline permethylation of synthetic 4- and 5-bromo-2-hydroxyphenyl mercapturic acid gave 4- and 5-bromo-2-methoxythioanisole, respectively, which were also observed after alkaline permethylation of urine from bromobenzene-treated rats, as was 2-bromo-4-methoxythioanisole. To explore the biosynthetic origin of the bromonohydroxyphenyl mercapturic acids, rats were separately dosed intraperitoneally with synthetic racemic 2-, 3-, or 4-bromophenyl mercapturic acid, or biosynthetic L-(-)-4-bromophenyl mercapturic acid, or a biosynthetic mixture of the 3,4- and 4,3-premercapturic acids from bromobenzene, and their urine (0-24 hr) analyzed by alkaline permethylation and GC/MS. The administered mercapturic acids and premercapturic acids were partly excreted unchanged (60-80% and 24%, respectively), but both gave rise to bromomonohydroxyphenyl mercapturic acids (0.1-5.2% of dose). Results indicated that the latter could be formed by 1) dehydrogenation of premercapturic acids and 2) hydroxylation of mercapturic acids (or their cysteine equivalents).