Topical treatment of mice with benzo[a]pyrene or parenteral administration of benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxide-DNA to rats results in faecal excretion of a putative benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxide-deoxyguanosine adduct.

The administration of [3H]BPDE-DNA, whether by i.p. or i.v. injection, to male Wistar rats resulted in the majority of the radioactivity being recovered in the faeces. Excretion was rapid: within 24 h post-injection, 45% of the applied dose was recovered in the faeces. H.p.l.c. analysis of radioactive material extracted from the faeces by methanol showed that it contained a single component which co-chromatographed with [3H]BPDE-dGuo and which was not affected by treatment with alkaline phosphatase, aryl sulphatase or beta-glucuronidase. To determine if this phenomenon occurs after topical application of BP to a target tissue, such as mouse skin, animals were treated with [3H]BP and their faeces collected. After an extensive extraction procedure involving differential solubility in organic solvents, Sephadex LH-20 chromatography and h.p.l.c., a product was isolated from mice faeces which had characteristics consistent with a [3H]BPDE-dGuo adduct. These findings are discussed in relation to detection of BPDE adducts in human populations.