Morphologic Characteristics of Breast Tumors in The Experimental Administration of Olive Oil

Abstract

Many studies have identified dietary factors implicated in breast cancer, according to epidemiologic and experimental laboratorial studies. In this study were used 48 female rats with 50 days. The Animals were divided in two groups and housed 5 in each plastic cage in a holding room under constant conditions of 22±2 °C, 55±10% humidity and a 12 h light/dark cycle. All the animals were submitted to the administration of 20 mg of 7,12 dimethylbenzanthracene (DMBA) in olive oil, by gavages. The animals of group I was provided with a defined standard food and the animals of group II had the same standard food but supplemented with olive oil in the dose of 50 ml /Kg. All the animals were sacrificed by the end the 26th week. The neoplastic lesions were evaluated according to morphologic features described in rat mammary carcinomas. It was evaluated the pattern grade, the nuclear grade, the number of mitosis, tumoral necrosis, inflammatory infiltration, the general score and the volume. In this series there was a non-significant variation of the volume of the tumours between the two groups. The histological studies of the tumors have shown that a low-grade carcinoma is more often in the group II than in group I. These results suggest that the administration of olive oil have changed the response of the animals to the induction of breast neoplasm by DMBA, what can be useful for some strategies of chemoprevention.