Induction of kidney tumours by a single dose of dimethylnitrosamine: dose response and influence of diet and benzo(a)pyrene pretreatment.

Seven days on a protein-free diet increases the susceptibility of rats to the action of DMN as a renal carcinogen. The dose response for the induction of kidney tumours by a single dose of dimethylnitrosamine (DMN) in these rats is reported. The first tumour was not found until 28 weeks after the dose. At 100 weeks the incidence ranged from 22.5% at the lowest dose (20 mg/kg) to 97% at the highest dose (60 mg/kg). The incidence in probits at any time between 50 and 100 weeks was linearly related to the log dose. Epithelial and mesenchymal tumours were produced in an approximate ratio of 2:1. The protein-free diet alters the rate of metabolism of DMN in the rat, and increases the alkylation of nucleic acids by this carcinogen in the kidney. Further treatment of the rat with benzo(a)pyrene can reverse, to some extent, the change in metabolism, but does not reverse the change in alkylation. It is shown that the change in kidney-tumour incidence produced by the change in diet, and by the treatment with benzo(a)pyrene, corresponds to the changes these treatments produce in the alkylation of kidney DNA by the carcinogen.