Incidence Of Spontaneous Lymphomas Research Articles

Assessment of the carcinogenic potential of mitemcinal (GM-611): Increased incidence of malignant lymphoma in a rat carcinogenicity study

Mitemcinal is an erythromycin derivative, which acts as an agonist of the motilin receptor. For assessment of the carcinogenicity of mitemcinal, we conducted a short-term carcinogenicity study in p53 (+/−) C57BL/6 mice and a 104-week carcinogenicity study in CD(SD)IGS rats. There was no evidence of a carcinogenic potential in mouse when administered for 26 consecutive weeks at levels up to 250 mg/kg/day. In the rat study, an increased incidence of lymphoma was noted in 5/60 males and 8/60 females of the high dose group (60 mg/kg/day) compared to 1/60 and 0/60 in control males and females, respectively, with statistical significance in females. Rat lymphomas include different immunomorphologic types (T- or B-cell lineage). Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that lymphomas from mitemcinal-treated rats and spontaneous cases were of T-cell lineage. The overall weight of evidence suggests that the incidence of spontaneous lymphoma was enhanced in the rat study. They also indicate that the increased incidence of lymphomas was based on a non-genotoxic effect with a threshold dose–response and that the tumorigenesis was based on the strain or species specificity of background factors. The high dose in the rat study is approximately 1600-fold higher (AUC) than that of the clinical dose, a sufficient margin of safety for the clinical dose. We conclude that the risk of carcinogenesis due to mitemcinal in humans can be considered to be minimal and is to represent an acceptable risk for the continued administration of mitemcinal to humans.

Three spontaneous lymphomas in a colony of cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus).

Cotton-top tamarins are well known for their prevalence to idiopathic colitis and adenocarcinomas. At the same time, information on the incidence of spontaneous lymphomas in this highly endangered species is rare. Records, 212 in total, of cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) necropsied at the German Primate Centre between 1979 and 1998 were viewed to establish the prevalence of lymphoid neoplasms. Neoplastic lymphoid cell growth was mentioned in three necropsy records. Immunohistology was performed in all three cases on the remaining formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue using antibodies against CD20, CD3, lysozyme, Ki-67, IgM, IgG, kappa, lambda and EBNA-2. Combining histological and immunohistological results, the lymphomas could be differentiated into two low-grade T-cell lymphomas and one high-grade multicentric polymorphic B-cell lymphoma. This corresponds to a 1.4% incidence of lymphomas in our cotton-top tamarin population over a period of 19 years. Although frozen material was not available and virological testing could not be carried out, clinical or histological evidence did not support an aetiological role of Herpes (H.) saimiri, H. ateles, simian T-cell leukaemia virus type 1 (STLV-1) or Epstein-Barr-related herpesvirus in any of these cases. The lymphomas were considered to be spontaneous.

Natural killer cell activity and spontaneous development of lymphoma. Effects of single and multiple injections of interferon into young and aged C57BL/6 mice

The capacity of interferon (IFN) given once or repeatedly to augment natural killer (NK) cell activity in the spleen was tested in young and aged C57BL/6 mice. Multiple injections of 10(4) u IFN i.p. into 3-month-old or 12-month-old mice did not augment cytotoxicity mediated by NK cell activity; rather it reduced this activity in relation to the effect obtained with a single injection. When T and B cells or macrophages were removed in vitro, no restoration of NK-cell activity, and therefore no suppressor cells, could be found in this system. In a long-term experiment, B6 mice were chronically injected with 10(4) u of IFN or mock-IFN from 5 months of age until death. No difference in the modification of NK-cell activity was observed after IFN and mock-IFN, regardless of the duration of treatment. However, the capacity of spleen cells to generate cytotoxic T cells after allogeneic stimulation in vitro or in vivo was increased in IFN-treated mice. The median survival time was improved by 7 weeks through treatment with IFN compared to mock-IFN, but was reduced by 9 weeks compared to the survival after treatment with saline. No significant difference in the incidence of spontaneous lymphoma resulted from IFN treatment, but the percentage of tumors observed in mice receiving mock-IFN (68.1%) was higher than that in mice receiving saline (44.1%). These results indicate that, while a stimulating effect resulting in a delay in mortality and in tumor development can be attributed to IFN itself, the contaminating antigenic products are plausibly responsible for the deleterious effect of the total preparation.

Leukemogenic activity of filtrates from radiation-induced lymphoid tumors of mice.

Cell-free filtrates of x-ray-induced lymphoid tumors of strain C57BL/ Ka mice have elicited, on injection into newborn isologous hosts, a lymphoma incidence of 15 to 19 percent. In control mice of the same subline, the incidence of spontaneous lymphoma is about 1 percent. No leukemogenic activity could be detected in filtrates from thymi harvested at 2 to 32 days following completion of x-ray treatment. Activity was evident at 64 days and was perhaps somewhat greater at 128 days. Serial cell-free passage of filtrates in newborn F(1) hybrid mice resulted in a marked increase in lymphoma incidence (69 percent), coupled with a shortening of the median latency. Supplementary x-irradiation failed to enhance the activity of filtrates after neonatal injection.