Possible two-stage transplacental liver carcinogenesis in C57BL/6 mice

A single SC injection of 2-acetylaminofluorene (AAF) was given to pregnant C57BL/6 mice on day 15 of gestation, and the offspring subsequently given twice-weekly injections of phorbol for 25 weeks. Control groups included: (1) untreated; (2) AAF-treated mothers (kept under observation for 18 months, as with all the other groups); (3) untreated offspring of untreated mothers; (4) untreated offspring of AAF-treated mothers, and (5) phorbol-treated offspring of untreated mothers. The incidence of hepatomas in the phorbol-treated offspring of AAF-injected mothers was 8/74 (11%), as compared with 2/80 (2.5%) in the untreated offspring of AAF-injected mothers. The AAF-injected mothers themselves developed 3/36 (8%) hepatomas; while all othe other control groups were free from liver tumours. The development of reticulum cell sarcomas, and of a few cases of lung adenomas, in the various groups, was presumably spontaneous. The results seem sufficiently encouraging, as a model for the study of systemic carcinogenesis, to warrant further attempts at two-stage transplacental carcinogenesis, using other potential initiators and promoters.