Studies on structurally related aromatic amines with different carcinogenic properties have shown that 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF) and 2-acetylaminophenanthrene (AAP) inhibit the binding of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin to the Ah receptor in vitro. The apparent inhibitor constants (Ki) are 2.3 microM for 2-AAF and 2.7 microM for AAP. In contrast, 4-acetylaminofluorene, an isomer of 2-AAF, and trans-4-acetylaminostilbene do not bind to the rat hepatic cytosolic Ah receptor. Pretreating female Wistar rats with 2-AAF or AAP leads to the induction of the P-450 isoenzymes that are under the control of the Ah receptor. Ornithine decarboxylase activity is induced by all aromatic amines tested irrespective of their Ah receptor affinity. The aromatic amines used as model compounds do not inhibit the binding of 17-beta-estradiol to the 8S and 4S estrogen receptor of rat uterus or rat liver in a competition assay analyzed using sucrose density gradient centrifugation. On the other hand, the aromatic amines bind to varying extents to another estrogen-binding protein of rat liver whose function and identity is still unknown. Our study demonstrates that structurally related aromatic amines in their unmetabolized form interact differentially with a cellular target protein, the Ah receptor, in vitro as well as in vivo. However, a relationship between these effects and the postulated promoting properties of 2-AAF remains to be established.