Dietary fat effects on the initiation and promotion of two-stage skin tumorigenesis in the SENCAR mouse.

We investigated the influence of dietary corn oil on initiation of skin tumors in SENCAR mice with 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) (10 nmol at 8 to 9 wk of age) and the promotion of these tumors with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) (3.2 nmol twice weekly for 20 wk). Diet high in corn oil (24.6%) was fed, in comparison with control diet (5%), to mice during two time schedules: (a) high-fat diet was fed preceding and for 1 wk following DMBA to assess the effects of high corn oil diet on initiation; and (b) high-fat diet was fed starting at the time of the first TPA treatment (1 wk following DMBA initiation) until the end of the experiment to assess effects of high corn oil diet on promotion. Mice were trained to consume equivalent caloric allotments of the low- and high-fat diets to ensure that the observed effects on tumor development were for dietary fat at constant calorie intake. Feeding high corn oil diet during DMBA treatment did not influence the incidence of skin papilloma or carcinoma, but the number of papillomas per effective mouse was reduced in mice fed the high-fat diet during initiation. Consumption of the high corn oil diet during and following TPA treatment resulted in an increase in the incidence of papillomas up until Wk 14 of the experiment, an increase in the number of papillomas per effective mouse throughout the experiment, and an increase in the number of carcinomas per effective mouse during Wk 25 to 34. However, cumulative carcinoma yield (Wk 25-44) did not differ between the diet groups. Dietary treatment did not influence food consumption, body weight, or survival in the mice treated with DMBA and TPA. Northern blot hybridization studies were carried out on RNA purified from tumors of high- and low-fat mice to determine if diet influenced the pattern of Ha-ras oncogene expression. The results of this experiment indicated that elevated levels of Ha-ras-specific RNA, in comparison with normal epidermal RNA, were present in papillomas and carcinomas from DMBA-initiated, TPA-promoted mice irrespective of the diet the mice were fed.