Role of glutathione in liver-mediated mutagenicity of acrylonitrile.
The mutagenic activity of acrylonitrile (ACN) towards the Salmonella typhimurium strain TA1530 was evaluated after a short preincubation time in liquid medium in the presence of microsomes, cytosolic fractions and post-mitochondrial fractions of liver from untreated and phenobarbitone (PB)-pretreated rats and mice. The effect of the presence of glutathione (GSH) was also examined. GSH enhanced the microsomal-mediated mutagenicity of ACN; that effect was abolished in the presence of CO. The effect of GSH was usually greater after pretreatment by phenobarbitone. Other sulfhydryl compounds induce a weaker mutagenic activity than GSH. These observations support the hypothesis of a mediated formation of a mutagen involving GSH, but the adduct between ACN an GSH was not mutagenic.