Carcinogenesis, chemical biological initiation

The principal pathway by which unsubstituted and many substituted aromatic hydrocarbons are metabolized in mammals consists of the initial formation of arene oxides, which undergo a variety of enzymatic and nonenzymatic reactions prior to excretion of the resulting more polar, oxidized hydrocarbons via bile or urine. Taken together, these pathways represent an attempt on the part of the animal to detoxify or eliminate such nonpolar xenobiotic substances for which it has no apparent use. Although detoxification is the probable role of the arene oxide pathway, it is equally clear that chemically reactive species mediate this process. Thus, studies over the past several years have either implicated or established arene oxides in a causative role in such adverse biological reactions as cytotoxicity, mutagenesis, and carcinogenesis via covalent interaction of arene oxides with biopolymers,... 

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