 development of methods to evaluate certain classes of polycyclic aromatic compounds ( pac ) detected in complex mixtures to which humans are exposed would greatly improve the diagnostic potential of 32p - postlabeling analysis . 
 identification of dna adduct patterns or specific exposure - related marker adducts would strengthen associations between observed dna adducts and exposures to different environmental pollutants ( e.g. , kerosene , cigarette smoke , coke oven , and diesel ) . 
 we have compared diesel - modified dna adduct patterns in various in vitro and in vivo rodent model systems and compared them to dna reactive oxidative and reductive metabolites of 1-nitropyrene . 
 the formation of nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon ( nitrated pah ) dna adducts , derived from the metabolism of diesel extract constituents , was enhanced relative to other pah - derived dna adducts via xanthine oxidase - catalyzed nitroreduction . 
 these adducts were detectable only by the butanol extraction version of the postlabeling analysis . 
 five major dna adducts were detected in human lymphocytes treated in vitro with diesel extract . 
 a major adduct detected in human lymphocytes treated in vitro with diesel extract comigrated with a major adduct detected in lymphocyte dna treated with benzo[a]pyrene ( bap ) alone . other adducts that co - migrated with the major bap - derived adducts were detected in skin and lung dna isolated from rodents topically treated with ( 50 mg ) diesel extract and the major adduct detected in calf thymus dna treated with rat liver s9 and diesel particle extract . 
 postlabeling of lung dna isolated from rodents exposed via lung inhalation for 24 months to diesel combustion emissions resulted in the formation of a major nuclease - p1-sensitive dna adduct that did not co - migrate with the major bap - diol epoxide adduct.(abstract truncated at 250 words)imagesfigure 1 . 
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