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Nitrosamine Formation from Amines Applied to the Skin of Mice after and before Exposure to Nitrogen Dioxide¹

Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68105

Skin lipids of mice exposed to NO₂ contain lipid-soluble nitrosating agent(s) (NSA) that react in vitro with amines to produce nitrosamines. To test whether this reaction occurs in skin, we exposed mice to 50 ppm NO₂ for 4 h and, 20 h later, applied 25 mg morpholine or N-methylaniline to the skin, which was then analyzed for the corresponding nitrosamine. When morpholine was applied, mean N-nitrosomorpholine yield was only 0.3 nmol/mouse (not significant). When N-methylaniline was applied and mice were killed after 10–40 min, N-nitroso-N-methylaniline yield in the skin was 13–21 nmol/mouse of which 87% occurred in the hair. NSA formation when mice were exposed to 6.5 ppm NO₂ was only 0.15% of that for exposure to 50 ppm NO₂. NSA occurred mostly in surface lipids of the skin and its in vitro reaction to give nitrosamines was not inhibited by -tocopherol. When morpholine was painted and mice were then exposed to 55 ppm NO₂ for 30 min, the skins contained 19 nmol N-nitrosomorpholine/mouse, attributed to a direct reaction between NO₂ and the amine. We concluded that nitrosamine formation in skin by this direct reaction may be more important than the reaction of amines with NO₂-derived NSA.

¹ Supported by United States Public Health Service Grants R01-CA-32192 and CA-36727 from the NIH and by a grant from the Nebraska Department of Health. Some of the results have been presented at meetings (1–3).

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

Received 8/17/87. Revised 11/20/87. Accepted 11/30/87.