Compared with standard Sephadex LH-20 column chromatography, a newly developed high pressure liquid chromatographic separation of hydrocarbon deoxyribonucleoside adducts derived from the DNA of mouse embryo cell cultures exposed to 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) provides markedly superior resolution. Once resolved, the fluorescence spectroscopic properties of the three major DMBA–DNA adducts indicate that the fluorescence exhibited by adducts derived from a bay region syn dihydrodiol epoxide of DMBA differs subtly from that exhibited by adducts derived from the isomeric anti dihydrodiol epoxide.