in the activation of chemical carcinogens

A liver and lung cell-mediated-V79 cell mutagenesis system using intact cells as metabolic activation systems was employed to study the relative ability of cells from these organs to activate chemical carcinogens. Primary cultures of liver and lung cells from male Sprague Dawley rats were used to metabolically activate the chemicals and the mutation of Chinese hamster V79 cells to ouabain resistance used to detect mutagenic intermediates. 7,12-Dimethylbenz[a]anthracene and 3-methylcholanthrene, were more active in the lung system than in the liver cell system. Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) was inactive in the liver cell-mediated system but mutagenic to V79 cells in the lung cell-mediated system. Dimethylnitrosamine (DMN) was inactive in th