Abstract
Weanling male Fischer rats were fed a purified diet or diets containing 25% (w/w) freeze-dried ground beets or cabbage with or without 1 ppm aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) for 26 wk. In 3–7 wk the cabbage diet diminished, while the beet diet enhanced AFB1-induced plasma α-foetoprotein (AFP) elevation. When the experiment was extended to 42 wk by maintaining the animals on the purified (basal) diet for a further 16 wk the rats that had consumed AFB1 in the beet diet had 72 ± 14 tumours/liver (mean surface diameter of tumours, 6·13 ± 4·69 mm); animals that had been given AFB1 in the control diet had 30 ± 16 tumours/liver (mean surface diameter, 4·36 ± 3·16 mm); rats that had been given AFB1 in the cabbage diet had 13 ± 5 tumours/liver (mean surface diameter, 4·28 ± 2·89 mm). In the Salmonella/ mammalian microsomal test, urine from rats fed AFB1 with beets caused significantly (P < 0·05) more revertants in Salmonella typhimurium strain TA98 than did urine from rats fed AFB1 with purified or cabbage diets. The beet- and cabbage-containing diets had no effect on the plasma AFP concentration, hepatic tumorigenesis, or the mutagenicity of urine in rats receiving no AFB1. The evidence suggests that non-nutrient components of common vegetables may influence the response to chemical carcinogens, and that AFP determinations are useful in the rapid identification of dietary factors that modify carcinogenesis.
Published Version
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