Mutagenicity towards Salmonella typhimurium of some known genotoxic agents, activated by isolated hepatocytes of monkey (Macaca fascicularis). Comparison with isolated human hepatocytes

This paper describes some striking differences between isolated human and monkey hepatocytes in their capacity to activate some known genotoxic agents into products mutagenic towards Salmonella typhimurium. Isolated monkey hepatocytes, in contrast to human hepatocytes, appeared to activate benzidine (BZ), N-acetylbenzidine (MABZ), N,N'-diacetylbenzidine (DABZ), 2-aminofluorene (2-AF) and 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF) poorly. With monkey hepatocytes BZ was slightly more mutagenic than DABZ, whereas with human hepatocytes DABZ was more active than BZ. N-Nitrosodimethylamine (DMN) and N-nitrosodiethylamine (DEN) were also found to be poorly mutagenic when activated by monkey hepatocytes, unlike the human hepatocytes. However, the polycyclic arylhydrocarbons benzoa]pyrene (Ba]P) and 7,12-dimethylbenzanthracene (7,12-DMBA) were highly active in the presence of monkey hepatocytes, unlike the human hepatocytes. A metabolic study showed that monkey liver preparations seem to possess a higher monooxygenase activity towards Ba]P than human liver preparations.