Promotion of hepatocarcinogenesis by suxibuzone in rats initiated with 3'-methyl-4-dimethylaminoazobenzene.

Among phenylbutazone (PZ) and its related compounds, suxibuzone (SUX) caused the most extensive decrease in pyruvate kinase (PK) activity with lower toxicity. Therefore, we studied the effect of SUX on rat hepatocarcinogenesis to confirm our assumption that an agent which causes a prolonged decrease in PK activity in rat liver promotes hepatocarcinogenesis. For initiation rats were fed a diet containing 0.06% 3'-methyl-4-dimethylaminoazobenzene (3'-Me-DAB) for 4 weeks. At the end of 53 weeks of the experiment the incidences of liver tumors were 14.3 and 70.0% in the rats fed basal diet and in the rats fed 0.5% SUX diet, respectively, after the initiation. No tumors were observed in rats fed the SUX diet without the initiation. The result shows that SUX promotes hepatocarcinogenesis and supports the above assumption.