Affiliations: Department of Pathology, National Institute of
Toxicology Research, Korea FDA, Nokbun-dong, Eunpyung-ku, Seoul 122-704,
Korea | Experimental Pathology \& Chemotherapy Division,
National Cancer Center Research Institute, 5-1-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
104-0045, Japan | Department of Biochemistry, Kyoto Prefectural
University of Medical School, Kawaramachi-hirokoji, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-0841,
Japan
Note: [] Department of Pathology, National Institute of Toxicology
Research, Korea FDA, Nokbun-dong, Eunpyung-ku, Seoul 122-704, Korea. Tel.: +82
2 380 1822; Fax: +82 2 380 1820; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: An investigation was conducted to assess the chemopreventive
potential of lycopene (LP), a naturally occurring hydrocarbon carotenoid found
in tomatoes and their products, administered during the post-initiation stage
in a multiorgan carcinogenesis model. One hundred eighteen
B6C3F_1 mice of both sexes were subjected to combined
treatment with diethylnitrosamine (DEN),
N-methyl-N-nitrosourea (MNU) and
1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) from day 11 after birth to week 9 (DMD treatment)
(groups 1 and 2) or given their vehicles (group 3). Then group 1 received LP
(25 or 50 ppm in drinking water) for 21 weeks from weeks 11 to 32. Group 2
served as a carcinogen alone control and group 3 was given only LP (25 or 50
ppm). The incidences and multiplicities of lung adenomas plus carcinomas
combined in male mice in group 1 receiving LP 50~ppm were significantly
decreased as compared to the DMD alone or DMD and LP 25 ppm group values (75.0
vs 18.8%, While hepatocellular carcinomas were lacking in
the DMD and LP groups, two cases were found in the DMD alone group (not
statistically significant). The values for aberrant crypt foci (ACF) and tumors
in the colon and kidney did not show any significant variation among the
carcinogen-treated subgroups. The results of this study provide evidence that
the tomato carotenoid, lycopene, may have potential as a chemopreventive agent
against carcinogenesis in the male lung.
Keywords: chemoprevention, lycopene (LP), mouse multiorgan carcinogenesis, lung cancer
Journal: BioFactors, vol. 13, no. 1-4, pp. 95-102, 2000
