H-ras activation and ras p21 expression in bladder tumors induced in F344/NCr rats by N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl)nitrosamine.

Bladder tumors were induced in male F344/NCr rats by administration of N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl)nitrosamine (BBN) at 500 p.p.m. in their drinking water for 12 weeks. Twenty-one bladder tumors that developed between 25 and 50 weeks after BBN administration was begun were evaluated for immunoreactivity with polyclonal or monoclonal antibodies raised against ras p21, for amplification of ras genes by Southern blotting, and for activating point mutations in ras genes by selective oligonucleotide hybridization of products from polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Increased expression of ras p21 was detected by avidin-biotin immunohistochemistry in 18/21 (85%) of the neoplastic bladder lesions. By Southern analysis, there was no significant amplification of H-ras, K-ras or N-ras in any of the tumors except one that showed a 5-fold amplification of K-ras. Point mutations in ras genes were detected by selective oligonucleotide hybridization of the products of PCR. Of the 21 bladder tumors, three tumors were shown to have mutations in codon 12 (GGA----GAA), six tumors in codon 61 (two CAA----CTA, four CAA----CGA), and one in both codon 12 (GGA----GAA) and codon 61 (CAA----CGA), all in H-ras. Thus 10 of 21 tumors has ras gene mutations in a portion of the tumor cells. The variable pattern of point mutation in H-ras suggests that these mutations may not all be a direct consequence of interaction of BBN metabolites with H-ras. Enhanced expression of ras p21 was always focal and was not necessarily associated with transforming ras mutations. It is therefore suggested that tumorigenesis in BBN-initiated bladder cells might involve H-ras activation as part of a multistep pathway; however, H-ras involvement is not obligatory for tumor development.