Arylamines and nitroarenes are very important environmental and occupa
tional pollutants. Genotoxic effects of arylamines are believed to be
initiated by the formation of DNA adducts. DNA adducts of arylamines h
ave been found in experimental animals and in exposed humans, and are
predominantly formed with the carbon 8 of 2'-deoxyguanosine. Reference
standards are necessary to develop methods for the quantification of
DNA-adducts. Therefore, we have synthesized the 2'-deoxyguanosin-8-yl
adducts of 2-methylaniline, 2-chloroaniline, 4-chloroaniline, 2,4-dime
thylaniline, and 2,6-dimethylaniline. The products were characterized
by H-1-NMR, C-13-NMR, MS and UV. The corresponding 2'-deoxyguanosine-3
'-monophosphate adducts were synthesized for the quantification of DNA
adducts by the P-32-postlabelling technique. A GC-MS method was devel
oped for the analysis of the new adducts as an alternative to the P-32
-postlabelling. DNA was spiked with the synthesized adducts and treate
d with 0.3 M NaOH overnight at 110 degrees C in the presence of a deut
erated internal standard. We observed up to 80% recovery from about 1
adduct in 10(8) to 1 in 10(5) nucleotides.