Promotion of <italic>N</italic>-Methyl-<italic>N</italic>-Nitrosourea-Induced Thyroid Tumors by Iodine Deficiency in F344/NCr Rats<xref ref-type="fn" rid="FN2">2</xref>

Abstract

Six-week-old male F344 rats were each given an injection once iv of N-methyl-N-nitrosourea [(MNU) CAS: 684-93-5] at a dose of 41.2 mg/kg body weight. Two weeks later, groups of rats were placed on iodine-deficient (ID) or iodine-adequate (IA) diets and then sacrificed at 20 and 33 weeks. Other groups received ID or IA diets without MNU. For localizing thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and prolactin, sections of pituitary glands were stained by the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex technique with the use of anti-rat TSH or prolactin antibody. At 20 weeks, rats receiving MNU and ID diets had a 100% incidence of diffuse follicular goiter and multiple follicular adenomas of the thyroid. Focal proliferative thyroid follicular lesions including focal hyperplasias and adenomas per square centimeter of thyroid gland were significantly increased in rats given MNU and ID diets in comparison with rats given MNU and IA diets. At 33 weeks, all MNU rats on ID diets had a significantly increased incidence of thyroid carcinoma of the follicular or papillary types and diffuse pituitary thyrotroph hyperplasia, hypertrophy, and vacuolar degeneration. Rats fed ID diets without MNU had diffuse follicular goiter but no tumors at any time period. MNU given alone in rats fed IA diets induced a 10% incidence of single thyroid adenomas at 20 weeks and 70% at 33 weeks and a 10% incidence of thyroid carcinoma at 33 weeks. Tumors induced in other organs by MNU were not affected by the ID diets. Thus this experiment provided evidence that ID diets are potent promoters of thyroid tumors in this system, but the ID diet itself without carcinogen was not carcinogenic under the conditions of the study.