Aqueous extracts of cigarette tar containing the tar free radical cause DNA nicks in mammalian cells.

The ability of aqueous extracts of cigarette tar to nick DNA was investigated using viable mammalian cells. Tar extracts contain a radical with a stable electron spin resonance (ESR) signal at g = 2.0036 characteristic of a semiquinone. The association of the tar component that carries the ESR signal with DNA was demonstrated using viable rat alveolar macrophages. The formation of single-strand DNA breaks caused by cigarette tar extracts in viable rat thymocytes follows saturation kinetics, indicating a tar component associates with DNA and then nicks it. These studies support our hypothesis that tar components that contain the cigarette tar radical can enter cells, associate with, and then nick DNA.