Paeonol was used to determine effects of arylamine N-acetyltransferase (NAT) activity in a rat liver tumour cell line. The NAT activity was measured by high performance liquid chromatography assaying for the amounts of N-acetyl-2-aminofluorene (2-AAF), N-acetyl-p-aminobenzoic acid (N-Ac-PABA) and the remaining a-aminofluorene (2-AF) and p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA). The NAT activity in liver tumour cell cytosols and intact tumour cells was increased by paeonol in a dose-dependent manner. The apparent values of K-m and V-max also increased after co-treatment of paeonol in both tissues. This report is the first to show that paeonol promoted rat liver tumour cell NAT activity.
