Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)oPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) 2 are ubiquitous environmental pollutants that include over 200 compounds with two or more fused benzene rings. PAHs are formed as a result of incomplete combustion of fossil fuels (e.g. coal and oil) and are present in car and diesel exhaust and smoked or charbroiled food (1-3). They are also found in cigarette smoke condensate and tobacco products and are suspect agents in the causation of human lung cancer (4, 5). PAHs must be metabolically activated to reactive genotoxins to cause their mutagenic and carcinogenic effects.Two major metabolic activation pathways are possible starting from the proximate PAH carcinogen (Ϫ)B[a]P-7,8-transdihydrodiol (Fig. 1). The P4501A1/1B1 pathway converts (Ϫ)B[a]P-7,8-trans-dihydrodiol to yield (ϩ)-anti-7,8-dihydroxy-9␣,10-epoxy-7,8,9,10-tetrahydroB[a]P (6 -8). This diol epoxide forms stable N 2 -2Ј-deoxyguanosine (dGuo) adducts in vitro and in vivo (9, 10) and leads to mutation in H-ras (11) and may account for mutations in "hot spots" in p53 observed in lung cancer (12). The G to T transversions most often observed in these genes might arise because of the action of one or more trans-lesional by-pass DNA polymerases that read through stable diol-epoxide DNA adducts with low processivity and fidelity (13,14).As an alternative, human aldo-keto reductases (AKR1A1 and AKR1C1-AKR1C4) catalyze the NADP ϩ -dependent oxidation of (Ϯ)B[a]P-7,8-trans-dihydrodiol to produce the electrophilic and redox-active B[a] P-7,8-dione (15, 16). In this pathway, AKRs convert B[a]P-7,8-trans-dihydrodiol to form a ketol that rearranges to a catechol. The catechol then undergoes two subsequent one-electron oxidations to yield the fully oxidized o-quinone. Once formed, B[a]P-7,8-dione amplifies reactive oxygen species (ROS) by entering futile redox cycles that deplete cellular reducing equivalents (e.g. NADPH) (17). PAH * This work was supported, in whole or in part, by National Institutes of Health Grants RO1-CA39504 and P30-ES013508 (to T. M. P.) and RO1-CA130038 (to I. A. B.