Use of in vitro bioassays to facilitate read-across assessment of nitrogen substituted heterocycle analogues of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Nitrogen-containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PANHs or azaarenes) are compounds structurally similar to PAHs (carbon substituted by a nitrogen) reported to occur at low levels in food. Although limited, literature may suggest possible higher toxicity than for PAHs. Using a battery of in vitro assays, the toxicological properties of uncharacterized PANHs of increasing ring number were compared to those of characterized structural PAH analogues.