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1987
Journal Article
Titel
Tumorigenicity study in Syrian hamster fed areca nut together with nitrite
Abstract
In order to evaluate the effect of concurrent administration of areca nut and sodium nitrite, a long-term feeding study was conducted with 120 Syrian hamsters. The animals were divided into four treatment groups, each consisting of 15 males and 15 females, and received 2 g/kg diet of sodium nitrite (group I), 20 g/kg diet of powdered areca nut (group II), 2 g/kg diet of sodium nitrite plus 20 g/kg diet of areca nut (group III) or powdered diet only (group IV) throughout their lifetime. Urine samples from all groups were analysed for N-nitrosonipecotic acid (NNIP), a major urinary metabolite of areca-nut-derived nitrosamines. NNIP was only detected in the urine of hamsters fed nitrite plus areca nut (concentration: 1.9 +/- 0.9 mg/ml urine), indicating that areca nut alkaloids underwent in vivo nitrosation to form areca-nut-specific nitrosamine. The total tumor response was not significantly elevated in groups II and III. Hamsters of group III had a markedly, but also insignificantly hig her frequency of malignant tumoours than those of the other groups, with a statistically significant increase in malignant lymphomas in the males. Althoug limited by the low number of animals per group, these results indicae that exposure to nitrite together with areca nutconstituents appears to enhance the risk of developing malignancies.