Mutagenicity of several pancreatic carcinogenic derivatives of N-nitrosodipropylamine in the Ames assay.

The mutagenic activity of several N-nitrosamines related to the potent hamster pancreatic carcinogen N-nitrosobis(2-oxopropyl)amine (BOP) has been investigated using the Ames Salmonella/microsomal mutagenicity test system. S9 from the livers of phenobarbital-pretreated hamsters was the source of activating enzyme, and strain TA1530 was the indicator organism. Mutagenicity assays of BOP, N-nitroso(2-hydroxypropyl)(2-oxopropyl)amine (HPOP), N-nitrosobis(2-hydroxypropyl)amine (BHP), N-nitroso-2,6-dimethylmorpholine (NDMM) and N-nitrosomorpholine (NM) indicate that only HPOP was strongly mutagenic in the absence of the hamster-liver preparation. In the presence of this activation system, NDMM was the most mutagenic, and cis NDMM was 2-3 times more mutagenic than the trans isomer of this compound. BOP and BHP were considerably less mutagenic than HPOP.