benzofurans and anthracene

Congeners are molecules based on the same carbon skeleton but different by the number of substituents and/or a substitution pattern. Various Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) exist in the environment as families of halogen substituted congeners and/or their hydroxyl and methoxy substituted derivatives. Numbers of possible congeners resulting from substitution of a parent POP molecule with only one type of chemical group are generally available. At the same time, numbers of mixed-substituent congeners have not been counted and presented yet, although there is an increasing interest in such as is the increasing number of research articles presenting results on already identified Cl-/Br-mixed type congeners and/or their HO-/CH(3)O-mixed metabolites. We have enumerated and counted possible mixed-substituent congeners of common POPs. This article presents the obtained numbers for congener families of benzene, naphthalene, biphenyl, diphenyl ether, dibenzo-p-dioxin, dibenzofuran, anthracene, pyrene and others and obtained by substitution of up to five chemical group types.

Topics: Anthracenes; Benzene; Benzofurans; Carbon; Dioxins; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental Pollutants; Molecular Structure; Naphthalenes; Organic Chemicals; Phenyl Ethers; Pyrenes

An apparatus for vapor pressure measurement with a very small cell by the mass-loss Knudsen effusion technique was tested with solid benzoic acid and anthracene. The vapor pressure and enthalpy of sublimation results of the two reference compounds were in good agreement with accepted literature data. The vapor pressures at different temperatures of 17 polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (including dibenzo-p-dioxin) and five polychlorinated dibenzofurans (including dibenzofuran) were measured with the apparatus, and the enthalpies of sublimation of the 22 dioxins and furans were derived from the temperature dependence of vapor pressure. The results were systematically compared with the literature data.

Topics: Anthracenes; Benzofurans; Benzoic Acid; Dibenzofurans, Polychlorinated; Dioxins; Phase Transition; Pressure; Temperature

Treatment of B6C3F1 mice with acenaphthylene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene and dibenzofuran resulted in induction of hepatic microsomal methoxyresorufin O-deethylase (MROD) activity. Acenaphthylene was the most potent inducer of MROD, a Cyp1a2-dependent activity, and was utilized as a prototypical inducer for this group of tricyclic hydrocarbons. Acenaphthylene (300 mg/kg) caused a > 80-fold induction of hepatic microsomal MROD activity; no induction was observed in kidney or lung. Analysis of induced hepatic microsomes with antibodies to Cyp1a1 and Cyp1a2 showed that acenaphthylene induced immunoreactive Cyp1a2 but not Cyp1a1 proteins and subsequent mRNA analysis confirmed with a cDNA probe for Cyp1a1 and Cyp1a2 that acenaphthylene induced Cyp1a2 but not Cyp1a1 mRNA. Results from nuclear run-on experiments using hepatic nuclei showed that acenaphthylene caused an approximately 4-fold increase in the rate of Cyp1a2 gene transcription in B6C3F1 mice. Results of competitive binding studies indicated that the tricyclic hydrocarbons did not competitively displace [3H]2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin or [3H]benzo[a]pyrene from the mouse hepatic cytosolic aryl hydrocarbon (Ah) receptor or 4S carcinogen binding protein respectively. The data indicate that acenaphthylene and related tricyclic hydrocarbons induce Cyp1a2 gene expression in B6C3F1 mice via an Ah receptor-independent pathway. Thus, tricyclic hydrocarbons induce Cyp1a2 without the co-induction of Cyp1a1 and therefore these relatively non-toxic compounds can be used to further probe the role of Cyp1a2 in the metabolism and metabolic activation of diverse chemical carcinogens.

Topics: Acenaphthenes; Animals; Anthracenes; Antibodies, Monoclonal; Benzofurans; Crosses, Genetic; Cytochrome P-450 CYP1A1; Cytochrome P-450 CYP1A2; Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System; Enzyme Induction; Female; Fluorenes; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred C3H; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Microsomes, Liver; Oxidoreductases; Perylene; Phenanthrenes; Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins; Receptors, Aryl Hydrocarbon