Carbon tetrachloride promoted malondialdehyde formation in liver microsomal and nuclear preparations from Sprague Dawley or Osborne Mendel male rats.

CCl4 is a hepatic carcinogen in male Osborne-Mendel (OM) but not in Sprague Dawley (SD) male rats. We demonstrate the occurrence of NADPH-dependent CCl4-promoted lipid peroxidation processes (LP) leading to malondialdehyde (MDA) formation in liver microsomal and nuclear preparations from OM and SD rats which do not correlate with the cancer susceptibility of both strains. Our results suggest that MDA production might not be a rate determining step in the carcinogenic process. However, the formation of this reactive aldehyde proximal to DNA and nuclear proteins might play a role that remains to be elucidated.