Quinoline: conversion to a mutagen by human and rodent liver

oline derivatives were tested for mutagenic activity with the Ames Salmonella typhimurium assay. Quinoline, 5-hydroxyqui-nOline, and 8-hydroxyquinoline were mutagenic in strain TA 100 when Aroclor 1254-induced rat (male outbred Sprague-Dawley) liver homogenate was present in the incubation mixture. Enzyme preparations from rats pretreated with P-448-dependent aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase inducers [3-methylcholanthrene (MCA) and p-naphthoflavone] and MCA-treated "responsive " C57BL mice also metabolized quinoline to a mutagen, but phenobarbital and pregnenolone-16a-carbonitrile pretreatment did not yield active preparations. The mutagenicity of quinoline was blocked by the in vitro addition of menadione, butylated hydroxy toluene, a-naphthoflavone, vitamin A acetate, and glutathione to the test system. Depletion of glutathione by diethyl maleate pretreatment in vivo enhanced the mutagenic potential of the liver enzym