Food Safety and Environmental Stewardship Program

Current risk assessments for environmental carcinogens rely on animal studies utilizing doses orders of magnitude higher than actual human exposures. Epidemiological studies of people with high exposures (e.g., occupational) are of value, but rely on uncertain exposure data. In addition, exposures are typically not to a single chemical but to mixtures, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The extremely high sensitivity of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) allows for dosing humans with known carcinogens with de minimus risk. In this study UPLC-AMS was used to assess the toxicokinetics of [C]-benzo[a]pyrene ([C]-BaP) when dosed alone or in a binary mixture with phenanthrene (Phe). Plasma was collected for 48 h following a dose of [C]-BaP (50 ng, 5.4 nCi) or the same dose of [C]-BaP plus Phe (1250 ng). Following the binary mixture, C of [C]-BaP significantly decreased (4.4-fold) whereas the volume of distribution (V) increased (2-fold). Further, the toxicokinetics of twelve [C]-BaP metabolites provided evidence of little change in the metabolite profile of [C]-BaP and the pattern was overall reduction consistent with reduced absorption (decrease in C). Although Phe was shown to be a competitive inhibitor of the major hepatic cytochrome P-450 (CYP) responsible for metabolism of [C]-BaP, CYP1A2, the high inhibition constant (K) and lack of any increase in unmetabolized [C]-BaP in plasma makes this mechanism unlikely to be responsible. Rather, co-administration of Phe reduces the absorption of [C]-BaP through a mechanism yet to be determined. This is the first study to provide evidence that, at actual environmental levels of exposure, the toxicokinetics of [C]-BaP in humans is markedly altered by the presence of a second PAH, Phe, a common component of environmental PAH mixtures.