Acute nephrotoxicity of cis/trans‐1,3‐dichloropropene (DCP) was assessed in male Fisher 344 rats. Pretreatment of rats with corn oil, aminooxyacetic acid (AOA), buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), or diethyl maleate (DEM) was given intraperitoneally 1 h or 4 h prior to injection of DCP. Doses of DCP were 0, 25, 50, and 75 mg/kg intraperitoneally (4–5 animals per dose/pretreatment group). Urine was collected for 24 h. Excretion of creatinine, phosphorus, protein, N‐acetylglucosaminidase (NAG), and the major metabolite of DCP, N‐acetyl‐S‐(cis‐3‐chloroprop‐2‐enyl)‐cysteine (3CNAC), was measured.

Excretion of the metabolite, 3CNAC, increased in a dose‐related manner from 0 to 50 mg/kg of DCP, but further increases were not seen at the 75 mg/kg dose. The pretreatments produced no alterations in the amounts of metabolite excreted when compared to corn oil controls. Zero‐order metabolism or impaired metabolism is suggested to be occurring at high doses of DCP.

The AOA pretreatment group showed no increase in the excretion of NAG, whereas other pretreatments (corn oil, BSO, DEM) showed elevations of NAG excretion at the highest DCP doses. AOA inhibits renal β‐lyase, an enzyme that mediates cleavage of mercapturic acid metabolites to toxic products. Since NAG excretion was not elevated in response to DCP with AOA pretreatment and was not raised by pretreatments that deplete glutathione, it is suggested that nephrotoxic effects of DCP may be mediated through the mercapturic acid metabolites on the kidney, rather than due to glutathione depletion per se.