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Title: Selective protective effect of butylated hydroxytoluene against 1,2-dimethylhydrazine carcinogenesis in BALB/c mice

Journal Article · · J. Natl. Cancer Inst.; (United States)
OSTI ID:5274568

The effect of the antioxidant butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) was determined in 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) colon carcinogenesis. The following groups were comprised of female and male BALB/c mice that were either: (1) given BHT (0.75% in the feed) for life beginning at 8 weeks of age; (2) inoculated with DMH (20 mg/kg body wt) sc for 10 weeks beginning at 11 weeks of age; (3) treated with BHT plus DMH; or (4) maintained as untreated controls. Mice of both sexes treated with BHT plus DMH had increased survival over those given DMH alone (females: 93 vs. 64%, P = 0.011; males: 92 vs. 57%, P<0.001). Adenomas and adenocarcinomas were induced by DMH primarily in the descending colon and rectum in both sexes; tumor incidences were reduced in male mice given BHT plus DMH compared with the incidence in males treated with DMH (34 vs. 75%, P = 0.0036), but not in females (60 vs. 50%). The numbers of tumors per tumor-bearing mouse were reduced in both sexes given BHT plus DMH as compared with mice given DMH alone (approx. = 2.0 to approx. = 1.0). Neither BHT-treated mice nor untreated controls had colon or rectal tumors. DMH induced lung tumors, but BHT did not; tumor incidences in mice treated with BHT plus DMH were intermediate between those in mice given DMH or BHT alone. The sex-specific protective effect of BHT on the survival of mice treated with DMH and on the tumor incidences in the large bowel (males only) resembled the sex-specific effect of BHT on diethylnitrosamine-induced squamous cell tumors of the forestomach (females only), but the mechanisms remain unexplained and may be quite different.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab., TN
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-26
OSTI ID:
5274568
Journal Information:
J. Natl. Cancer Inst.; (United States), Vol. 63:4
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English