Effects of dietary soya bean trypsin inhibitor concentrate on initiation and growth of putative preneoplastic lesions in the pancreas of the rat

Abstract

Two studies evaluated the effects of soya bean trypsin inhibitor concentrate (STIC) on early stages of pancreatic carcinogenesis in Wistar rats. In experiment 1, the effects of a 3-month administration of diets containing 3.7% STIC were compared with the effects of administration of diets containing 20% corn oil, in rats pretreated with a single azaserine injection sufficient to initiate putative preneoplastic atypical acinar cell foci. Experiment 2 investigated the capacity of STIC to initiate pancreatic carcinogenesis. Diets containing 3.7% STIC were fed for 4 wk, then diets containing either 5 or 20% corn oil were fed for 3 months. Pancreases were quantitatively evaluated for foci. All groups of azaserine-initiated rats had large numbers of atypical acinar cell foci per cm 3 of pancreas. Of these, the group fed 3.7% STIC had pancreatic foci that occupied a significantly greater ( P < 0.01) percentage volume of pancreas than did groups fed 20% corn oil or control diets, which contained 5% corn oil and no added trypsin inhibitor. Very few or no foci were observed in all other groups of either experiment 1 or 2. STIC had a much greater effect on the growth of azaserine-induced lesions than did corn oil. STIC alone did not appear to initiate pancreatic lesions.