Inhibition by wine of tumorigenesis induced by ethyl carbamate (urethane) in mice

Groups of 18-21 male weanling C3H mice were given, as drinking fluid, tap-water, 12% ethanol solution, one of two commercial white wines, or red wine, ad lib. for 41 wk. Ethyl carbamate was added to each of the drinking liquids at levels adjusted to provide average daily ethyl carbamate intakes of 0, 10 or 20 mg/kg body weight. After 41 wk the cumulative survival of the mice given 20 mg ethyl carbamate/kg in water was depressed compared with the mice drinking wines or ethanol solution with this ethyl carbamate level. Both ethanol and wine treatments reduced the incidence of lung Clara-cell adenomas in mice given 10 mg ethyl carbamate/kg and reduced the frequency (number of specific tumours/number of tumour-bearing mice) of both Clara-cell adenomas in mice given 10 mg ethyl carbamate/kg and of alveolar adenomas in mice given 20 mg ethyl carbamate/kg. Wine treatments also reduced the frequency of hepatocellular adenomas compared with those of other treatment groups, and no hepatocellular carcinomas developed in any of the groups given wine, even with the 20-mg/kg ethyl carbamate dose. The incidence of hepatocellular adenomas in the groups given 10 mg ethyl carbamate/kg was, as shown by chi-square analysis, significantly reduced by the ethanol and wine treatments. The mean weight gains of mice on all the wine treatments were lower than those of water-treated mice and this may have been a factor in tumour inhibition; however, it is also possible that wine components other than ethanol may play a role in the inhibition of tumour development.