Abstract
THE skin of white mice painted with benzpyrene fluoresces violet at first, but within two to four days the colour of the fluorescence changes slowly to blue. The blue persists for two to three weeks, until it cannot be distinguished from the natural bluish-white fluorescence of the skin1. The spectrum of the violet fluorescence contains the typical groups at 427 and 455 µ of molecularly dispersed benzpyrene. The blue spectrum contains two diffused bands at about 450 and 425 mµ. It is similar to, but apparently not identical with, the fluorescence spectra of 'BPX'2,3 and the orthorhombic crystalline modification of pure benzpyrene4. It is, however, different from the fluorescence spectrum of the monohydroxy-benzpyrene which Chalmers and Crowfoot5 have isolated from the fæces of rats injected with benzpyrene. We have also observed this blue fluorescence in the kidney cortex, liver and lung of mice and rabbits, and in the protein fraction of the milk of lactating mice after injection of benzpyrene1.
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Chalmers, F. G., and Crowfoot, Dorothy, Biochem. J., 35, 1270 (1941).
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MOTTRAM, J., WEIGERT, F. Transformation of Benzpyrene in the Living Skin of Mice into a Compound Soluble in Dilute Alkali. Nature 150, 635 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/150635a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/150635a0
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