Mutagenicity in V79 cells does not correlate with carcinogenity in small rodents for 12 aromatic amines

The aim of this investigation was to study the correlation between carcinogenicity in small rodents and mutagenic potency of aromatic amines, as measured by the induction of 6-thioguanine resistance in V79 Chinese hamster cells. It has been previously shown that the carcinogenic potency of these compounds is not correlated to their ability to induce DNA breakage, SCEs, or point mutations in bacteria, but a correlation exists with autoradiographic DNA repair test (in primary hepatocyte cultures). Twelve aromatic amines were tested and the rat liver S9 fraction was routinely incorporated in the mutation assay; mouse liver and hamster liver S9 fractions were also used as metabolizing systems. The comparison of the ranks of mutagenic and oncogenic potencies by means of the Spearman test shows no correlation between carcinogenicity and V79 cell mutagenicity of the tested aromatic amines. There was a generally low mutagenicity seen for aromatic amines in V79 cells. In some cases this could be attributed to an insufficient metabolic activation by rat S9. For example, benzidine, which was inactive when assayed in the presence of rat S9, became mutagenic when in the presence of mouse S9. On the other hand, hamster S9, which has been shown to be the best activating system for 2-acetylaminofluorene in the Ames test, did not activate this compound in V79 cells. Inadequate metabolic activation of the standard system (rat S9) used in this work could explain the low mutagenicity and the lack of correlation observed between mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. A second possibility is that point mutation is not the essential end point for the initiating activity of aromatic amines during the carcinogenic process. A third possibility is that the activity of some aromatic amines is not restricted to the initiation step in carcinogenesis. Chronic treatments with the sublethal doses often result in significant promoting activities, which could mask efficiently the initiating potential of the same chemicals.