Comparison of Nitro-Aromatic Content and Direct-Acting Mutagenicity of Passenger Car Engine Emissions

Evaluation of the mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of motor vehicle emissions in short-term bioassays.

“…Preliminary studies on the activity of nitropyrenes suggest that these compounds are active in mammalian cells. The concentrations of mono-and dinitrated pyrenes (51) in the samples tested here, however, can not account for all of the "direct-acting" mutagenic activity observed in mammalian cells treated with diesel particle organics. Further research is needed to identify other mutagenic and potentially carcinogenic constituents of diesel and gasoline emissions.…”

A High-Yield Sampler for Toxicological Characterization of Complex Mixtures in Combustion Effluents

“…This fact has important consequences in environmental sampling for toxicological assessment since some nitroarenes exhibit especially potent genotoxic action in mutagenicity assays based on S. typhimurium (22,23). Even at very low concentration levels of 0.1 ng/mL or less (based on the present findings ofnitration of < 1 part in 107 ofarenes present at 1 mg/mL), it is still possible that artifactually nitrated PAH could cause misleading mutagenicity determinations.…”

Source Contributions to the Mutagenicity of Urban Particulate Air Pollution

“…PM emissions from sources such as diesel engine exhaust also have been studied using bioassay-directed chemical analysis. [13][14][15] The effluents from automobile exhaust, coal-fired furnaces, and kerosene flames have been examined using different biological endpoints, such as carcinogenicity in mice 16 -18 and human cell mutagenicity. 19 Determining the effect of air pollution sources on the mutagenic potency of atmospheric PM based on the existing scientific literature is difficult at best.…”