ABSTRACT
1. In vitro metabolism of methaphenilene (MFN) and pyribenzamine (PBZ) was compared to that of methapyriline (MPH) in rat, because chronic treatment with MPH causes cancer in rats, whereas MFN and PBZ cause no cancer. 2. G.l.c. and mass spectrometry were used to identify 7 metabolites of MFN and 6 of PBZ in extracts of rat liver microsome incubations. 3. Quantification of the metabolic pathways revealed that N-oxide formation is considerably more important for both MFN and PBZ than for MPH, and only MPH forms an amide as a metabolic product. 4. Quantitative balance studies show that a lower recovery is apparent for metabolic experiments with MPH than for either MFN or PBZ under all conditions examined, indicating that significant metabolic pathways for MPH exist which are not being measured under these conditions.
