Pharmacological coal tar induces G:C to T:A transversion mutations in the skin of muta mouse

Coal tar is a by-product of the distillation of coal. It consists of a complex chemical mixture of aromatic and aliphatic hydrocabons, with high concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzo[a]pyrene. We have previously shown that single painting on skin of mice increases the mutation frequency 16 times in murine epidermis cells (Thein et al. 2000). Here, we have determined the mutations by DNA sequencing. Coal tar was found to primarily induce G:C to T:A transversions and one-base pair deletions of G:C base pairs. More than half of the mutations were at CpG sites. The mutational spectrum is in agreement with that of benzo[a]pyrene and other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon mixtures.