Metabolism of benzo[a]pyrene in the combined rat liver--lung perfusion system.

The influence of the insertion of a liver into the perfusion circuit of a lung on the availability of benzo[a]pyrene and benzo[a]pyrene metabolites to the lung was examined. Perfused lungs from 5,6-benzoflavone pretreated rats release high quantities of free benzo[a]pyrene metabolites and conjugates into the perfusion medium. The insertion of a liver taken from an untreated rat reduces the concentration of unmetabolized substrate and of free diol, quinone and phenol metabolites to less than 20% of the concentrations found in the absence of the liver. When the liver of a 5,6-benzoflavone-pretreated rat is used, substrate depletion is not much greater than in the experiments with control livers; however, the concentration of free metabolites is further reduced to one third. In lung tissue, only very low levels of benzo[a]pyrene and greatly reduced levels of free and conjugated metabolites are found when a 5,6-benzoflavone-induced liver had been present during perfusion. These findings can explain the protective effect of the liver on covalent binding of benzo[a]pyrene metabolites to pulmonary macro-molecules observed in previous experiments with the combined liver-lung perfusion model [Klaus et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 105 (1982) 596].