2-Amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (IQ) is a heterocyclic amine (HCA) formed by high-temperature cooking of proteinaceous food (Felton and Knize, 1990). More than 20 similarly formed HCAs have been identified. In the human diet, consumption of 400 g of cooked lean meat could result in exposure to several micrograms of mutagenic HCAs. These amines are detected in urine and their excretion, as unchanged amine, is increased by a cytochrome P450 (P450) inhibitor (Lynch et al., 1992;Boobis et al., 1994), indicating their absorption from cooked foods and P450 metabolism.IQ is a potent carcinogen inducing tumors in multiple tissues and in different species (National Toxicology Program Report on Carcinogens: Background Document for Heterocyclic Amines: MeIQ, MeIQx, IQ, and PhIP, 2005, http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/eleventh/ profiles/s092vhca.pdf). In mouse, oral administration of IQ caused forestomach, liver, and lung tumors in both sexes. Although IQ also caused tumors in several organs in both sexes of rats, mammary and clitoral gland tumors were only detected in females and colon and skin tumors only in males. IQ administered orally to monkeys or mice caused liver tumors. Using a colitis-induced carcinogenicity model with ApcMin/ϩ mice (Cooper et al., 2001), we have preliminary data indicating that induction of colitis by treatment with 4% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) in drinking water followed by oral doses of 40 mg/kg IQ resulted in a 100% incidence of invasive colorectal tumors, whereas mice treated with only DSS had no tumors (Clapper et al., 2006). The strong association of intake of high-temperature cooked meat and colorectal cancer risk (Giovannucci et al., 1994), the presence of HCAs in cooked meat (Felton and Knize, 1990), and the initiation of colon cancer by HCAs (Kristiansen et al., 1997) suggest that HCAs present in high-temperature cooked meat may be responsible for the increased risk of colon cancer associated with this dietary component.Activation of IQ is thought to involve N-oxidation by P450, followed by O-acetylation with subsequent formation of a reactive intermediate, nitrenium ion, that binds DNA (Turesky et al., 1991). These DNA adducts are thought to cause mutations that initiate carcinogenesis. After IQ administration, DNA adducts are found in a variety of rodent and nonhuman primate tissues (Nerurkar et al., 1995;Turesky et al., 1996). Whereas N-oxidation of IQ has been demonstrated with rat microsomes (Turesky et al., 1998), excretion of