Abstract
Modulation of microsome mediated benzo[a]pyrene (BP) metabolism by oleic and linoleic acids was studied. Oleic and linoleic acids did not influence the apparent activity of aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase or the relative ratios of BP-7,8-di-hydrodiol to phenol metabolites on high performance liquid chromatography. The total binding of BP-metabolites to DNA was not influenced much by the presence of oleic acid, but was inhibited significantly by linoleic acid ( p vice versa in the presence of fatty acids. The presence of 1, 2 or 5 μ l/ml oleic acid decreased the amounts of adducts with the anti- and syn-isomers of the diol-epoxide but not those with 9-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene-4,5-oxides, whereas the presence of 0.08-2 μ l/ml of linoleic acid decreased the amounts of all these adducts but to different extents, resulting in predominance of 9-hydroxybenzo-[a]pyrene-4,5-oxide derived adducts over anti-isomer adducts of the diol-epoxide. These observations suggest that endogenous materials that do not have any enzyme activity may have important influences on the metabolism of chemical carcinogens.