Lack of mutations of the p53 tumor suppressor gene in hepatocellular carcinomas induced in rats by a peroxisome proliferator.

Immunohistochemical, immunoblotting, and DNA-sequencing analyses were performed on hepatocellular carcinomas induced in rats chronically fed BR931, a peroxisome proliferator, to determine whether the tumors carried mutations or other alterations of the p53 gene. None were detected. Inactivation of this tumor suppressor gene does not appear, therefore, to be involved in the carcinogenicity of BR931, a nongenotoxic chemical hepatocarcinogen.