In vitro metabolism of atrazine by rat liver

The metabolism of atrazine and 6 possible metabolites by rat liver subcellular fractions was studied in vitro. The dealkylation reaction predominated over the conjugation reaction with glutathione; the isopropyl group being more easily dealkylated than the ethyl group. With the compounds investigated, the reactions involved dealkylation in the microsomal fraction and conjugation with glutathione in the soluble fraction. All of the chloro-s-triazines were able to form conjugates with glutathione. No evidence for the dechlorination of the chloro-s-triazines to hydroxy-s-triazines was observed in vitro.