Metabolism in vivo of 1-nitropyrene, an environmental pollutant, in fish

The in vivo metabolism of 1-nitropyrene, an important environmental pollutant, was examined in fish, focusing on nitroreduction followed by acylation. When goldfish were bathed in a solution of 1-nitropyrene or its reduction product, 1-aminopyrene, one or two metabolites were isolated from the solution, respectively. The former metabolite was identified as 1-aminopyrene and the latter two metabolites as 1-acetylaminopyrene and 1-formylaminopyrene by comparing their mass and UV spectra, and their behaviors in HPLC and TLC, with those of authentic samples.