Urinary metabolites of 3,3-dimethyl-1-phenyltriazene.

Urinary metabolites excreted after a subcutaneous injection of 3,3-dimethyl-1[14C] phenyltriazene (DM[1-14C]PT) to rats accounted for 82% of the applied radioactivity. We have isolated aniline (1-2%), 2-hydroxyaniline (5-7%), 3-hydroxyaniline (about 1%) and 4-hydroxyaniline (31-37%) from ethyl acetate extracts of acid-hydrolysed urine, UV spectrometric determination of 4-hydroxyaniline, using the indophenol reaction, showed that the most abundant metabolite accounted for 56 to 61% of the applied dose. We have also demonstrated the excretion of metabolites containing the intact triazene structure (0.9-1.1%) by cold acid cleavage of these compounds, followed by coupling of the released arenediazonium cations with N-ethyl-1-naphthylamine (EN). The coloured derivatives of these metabolites, 4-benzeneazo-N-ethyl-1-naphthylamine (BAEN) (0.6-0.7%), 4-(2-hydroxybenzeneazo)-N-ethyl-1-napthylamine (2-HO-BAEN) (0.02%) and 4-(4-hydroxybenzeneazo)-N-ethyl-1-naphthylamine (4-HO-BAEN) (0.3-0.4%) were isolated. The identification of BAEN as the principal azo derivative of the excreted triazene metabolites is in full agreement with the proposed in vivo activation of 3,3-dimethyl-1-phenyltriazene (DMPT) to a carcinogenic methylating agent. The hydroxylation of the methyl group at N-3 yields the corresponding aminol, some of which is covalently bonded to a water-soluble compound.