Abstract
WHEN p-dimethylaminoazobenzene and certain other azo-compounds are administered to rats, either by feeding or by injection, liver tumours are produced in a high percentage of the animals1. This behaviour is in sharp contrast to the carcinogenic polycyclic compounds, which produce tumours mainly at the site of injection2. In this connexion it is significant that Miller and Miller3 have found that p-dimethylaminoazobenzene becomes firmly bound to a cellular constituent in rat's liver, but that no such fixation occurs in other tissues in which this substance is not carcinogenic. Numerous azo-compounds are now known to be liver carcinogens; but the property is a relatively specific one. It has been suggested by Pullman4 that the cancer-producing activity depends on the presence of an optimum electronic charge on the azo linkage itself (called the K′ region), and that the magnitude of the charge is governed by the substituents present. It seemed of interest to examine this hypothesis by studying the rate of addition of electrophilic reagents to this region in a series of carcinogenic and related non-carcinogenic azo-compounds.
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BADGER, G., LEWIS, G. Rates of Oxidation of Azonaphthalenes. Nature 167, 403–404 (1951). https://doi.org/10.1038/167403a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/167403a0
