Research Product

The organic carcinogens benzo(a)pyrene, dieldrin, and N-acetyl-2-aminofluorene were recovered on XAD-2 macroreticular resin in yields of 90% or more from distilled water or seawater in yields of 40% or more from Lake Pontchartrain water containing a high concentration of organic material. The original solutions contained less than 500 parts per trillion of carcinogen. These results show that XAD-2 provides an efficient means for recovering nonpolar organic carcinogens from dilute solutions. More polar carcinogens such as dimethylnitrosamine were not effectively recovered on XAD-2 columns. Since XAD-2 binding would not be selective for carcinogens, we investigated methods which might bind carcinogens selectively from a mixture of organic compounds. We tested the ability of the above carcinogens to bind to nucleic acid using direct binding, equilibrium dialysis, nuclei binding, and binding to DNA-cellulose. Radio-labeled carcinogens were used to quantify the amount bound. Either rat liver nuclei (0.1 mg DNA) or DNA-cellulose (1 mg DNA) bound 18% of the acetylaminofluorene and up to 66% of the dieldrin from solutions containing 150 to 280 nmoles of compound. Up to 30% of the benzo(a)pyrene from solutions containing as much as 320 pmoles was bound. Ten-fold or lower recoveries were found when direct-binding or equilibrium-binding methods were used.