Abstract
Distribution of benzene in the body with special reference to the bone marrow was measured after theinjection of 14C-labelled benzene into rabbits. By a single dose of benzene, no metabolites of benzene were measured in the bone marrow, but by injecting daily for several days, a large amount of metabolites was accumulated. It was assumed that these metabolites detected in the bone marrow were present in free state or in com-bined state with proteins. They were not detected in the DNA fraction ofthe bone marrow prepared according to the method of Key et al, whilst the basic composition of DNA molecule prepared from poisoned rabbits differed from the normal as reported previ-ously. Therefore, the appearance of this abnormal DNA molecule may be caused by a disturbed synthetic process of DNA in the bone marrow of poisoned rabbits. The physical structure of this abnormal DNA molecule was alsodiscussed.
