Isoprene (2-methyl-1,3-butadiene) is the monomeric unit of widely occurring natural products called terpenes. Isoprene is widely used in industry with nearly 1.1 million pounds produced in the United States in 1987. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the toxicokinetics of inhaled isoprene in B6C3F1 mice and to compare the data to previously published toxicokinetic data in F344 rats (A. R. Dahl, L. S. Birnbaum, J. A. Bond, P. G. Gervasi, and R. F. Henderson, 1987. Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol. 89, 237-248). The comparative toxicokinetics in the two species will be useful for extrapolation of rodent toxicity data to humans. Male B6C3F1 mice were exposed to nominal concentrations of 20, 200, and 2000 ppm isoprene or [14C]isoprene for up to 6 hr. For all exposures, steady-state levels of isoprene were reached rapidly (i.e., within 15 to 30 min) after the onset of exposure. The mean (+/- SE) steady-state blood levels of isoprene (identified by headspace analysis) for the 20, 200, and 2000 ppm exposures were 24.8 +/- 3.3, 830 +/- 51, and 6800 +/- 400 ng isoprene/ml blood, respectively. At the two higher exposure concentrations, the increases in blood levels of isoprene were proportional to the increases in air concentrations of isoprene. There was approximately a 2.3-fold decrease in the retained 14C/inhaled 14C ratio with increasing exposure concentration. Depending on the exposure concentration, from 52% (20 ppm isoprene) to 73% (2000 ppm isoprene) of the metabolite-associated (nonisoprene) radioactivity was excreted in the urine over a 64-hr postexposure period. 14CO2 exhalation after the end of the 6-hr exposure was minimal (2%) at the 20 ppm exposure and increased up to 18% at the higher isoprene exposure concentrations. These data suggest that metabolism of isoprene in mice is nonlinear within the range of exposure concentrations used in this study. Hemoglobin adduct formation reached near-maximum between 200 and 2000 ppm isoprene exposure concentration, consistent with our conclusion that pathways for metabolism of isoprene were saturated. Isoprene metabolites were present in blood after inhalation of isoprene at all concentrations studied. There were substantial differences in the toxicokinetics of inhaled isoprene in mice compared to rats. In mice, fractional retention of inhaled isoprene, which reflects, in part, metabolism of isoprene, was linearly related to exposure concentrations up to 200 ppm but decreased at 2000 ppm; in rats, fractional retention of inhaled isoprene decreased with increasing exposure concentration over a range of exposures from 8 to 1500 ppm.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)