Metabolic activation of procarcinogens to genotoxic products in cultured rat liver cells.

A recently established rat liver cell line, RL-12, exhibits an unusually high sensitivity to the genotoxic effects of a number of selected procarcinogens. Significant reductions in cell survival (D37%) and induction of sister chromatid exchanges were obtained with 1 X 10(-9) M benzo[a]pyrene and 2 X 10(-8) M 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene. This rat liver epithelial cell line may serve as a useful model system to study the metabolic activation of procarcinogens to their ultimate genotoxic form.