A human plasma component that binds benzo(A)pyrene

A component capable of binding benzo(a)pyrene was measured in plasma from cigarette smokers and nonsmokers. This plasma fraction was found to have a high specificity of binding to benzo(a)pyrene, bound benzanthracene competitively with benzo(a)pyrene, and was positively correlated (r = 0.861, p < 0.001) with the capacity of the individual subject's lymphocytes to be induced for AHH activity in culture. An inverse correlation (r = 0.957, p < 0.001) between the presence of the plasma component in lung cancer patients and the capacity of lung cancer patients lymphocytes to be induced in culture is unexplained at this time. A benzo(a)pyrene-binding fraction was not found in induced or uninduced cultured lymphocytes from smokers or nonsmokers, or in homogenates of lung excisional tissue from smokers with or without primary lung cancer.