The inhibition by methionine and choline of liver carcinoma formation in male C3H mice dosed with diethylnitrosamine and fed phenobarbital.

The ability of the dietary methyl donors methionine and choline to inhibit the carcinogenic and tumor-promoting effects of phenobarbital (PB) in the livers of male weanling C3H mice was examined. The mice were fed a commercial rodent diet with or without 0.05% PB. Thirty animals from each set received the diet with either: (1) no dietary supplementation, (2) an additional 1.0% choline chloride, (3) 1.5% DL-methionine or (4) both 1.5% DL-methionine and 1.0% choline chloride. Additional groups of 30 animals with the same eight dietary and PB-treatment regimens described above were given a single initiating dose of 150 mg diethylnitrosamine (DENA)/kg body wt dissolved in saline, or the saline solution only, 1 week prior to the start of PB feeding. The 16 treatment groups were fed their respective diets for 12 months. Statistical trend analysis showed that increasing levels of supplemental methyl donors gave highly significant protection in PB-treated mice (P less than 0.01). The incidence of liver carcinomas in the four dietary groups not receiving PB or DENA varied from 0 to 7%. The PB-treated animals not receiving an initiating dose of DENA developed hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) at incidences of 79% in group 1 animals, 74% in group 2 animals, 60% in group 3 animals, and 31% in group 2 animals respectively. Thus, incidence of HCCs in group 4 was significantly lower than in groups 1, 2 or 3 (P less than 0.01). However, the total incidence of liver tumors (adenomas plus carcinomas) was about the same in all DENA or PB-treated groups. Thus, dietary supplementation with methyl donors increased the proportion of animals bearing liver adenomas as their most advanced hepatic lesion in PB-treated mice. In DENA-treated mice fed PB, dietary supplementation with methionine and choline protected against the formation of liver carcinomas (P less than 0.02); however, methionine and choline had no significant effect on liver tumor formation in mice fed the PB-free diets. Methionine and choline supplementation gave significant protection against HCC metastases in the lungs of the tumor-bearing mice in groups initiated with DENA followed by PB promotion. These results support the hypothesis that PB exerts it tumorigenic activity in mice at least in part through a physiological insufficiency of labile methyl groups.