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Title: Effect of inhaled sulfur dioxide and systematic sulfite on the induction of lung carcinoma in rats by benzo(a)pyrene

Journal Article · · Environ. Res.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6744525

Rats were treated with BaP by 15 consecutive weekly intratracheal instillations. Some of these rats were simultaneously exposed either to SO/sub 2/ by inhalation or to sulfite/bisulfite anions that accumulated systematically from endogenous generation in rats with induced sulfite oxidase deficiency. The total treatment period spanned 21 weeks, after which the rats were observed for the development of tumors. BaP-treated rats began to die with SQCA of the respiratory tract at approximately 200 days after the first BaP treatment and at 2 years after the first treatment nearly all rats in the BaP-treated groups had died, most with SQCA. Survival in the control groups was excellent and the health of all groups (aside from pulmonary SQCA in BaP-treated groups) was also excellent. The probability of dying with a pulmonary SQCA in the experimental groups treated with BaP, BaP plus inhaled SO/sub 2/, and BaP plus systemic sulfite/bisulfite was calculated by the log rank analysis. The data sets of SQCA probability from these groups were not statistically different by the chi/sup 2/ test indicating that, in this experiment, neither inhalation exposure to SO/sub 2/ nor systemic exposure to sulfite/bisulfite anions affected the induction of SQCA of the lung by intratracheally instilled BaP. The authors conclude that the results of this study do not support an etiological role for either SO/sub 2/ or sulfite/bisulfite anions in the induction of SQCA of the respiratory tract by BaP.

Research Organization:
New York Univ. Medical Center, NY (USA)
OSTI ID:
6744525
Journal Information:
Environ. Res.; (United States), Vol. 46:1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English