[Study on trace elements in epithelial cells during oral carcinogenesis prevented by garlic]

Sixty-two Wistar rats were divided randomly into two groups, thirty-one for each group. The posterior hard palatal mucosae of all animals were painted thrice weekly with 0.5% 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide(dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide). Before that, the garlic injection solution and the distilled water were painted at the same place of the experimental and control group animals, respectively. All animals were killed in turn from the beginning of the experiment at random at the 10th, 13th, and 19th week. Then, trace elements of intranuclear and cytoplasm of epithelial cells or cancer cells at the mentioned weeks were surveyed by electron probe microanalysis. The results were that garlic decreased the levels of intranuclear and cytoplasm copper(P < 0.05); the levels of intranuclear and cytoplasm selenium at the 10th week and the 13th week(P < 0.05) and those of zinc at the 19th week (P < 0.01) increased. So, garlic inhibits oral carcinogenesis by changing concentrations of intranuclear and cytoplasm trace elements that is copper, zinc, selenium, and the ratio of the three elements.