[The effect of sodium nitrite on rats infected with avian sarcoma virus]

A potential effect of sodium nitrite was studied as exerted on carcinogenesis elicited by the avian sarcoma virus in the body of rats. In the case of the infection of the rats with indefective avian sarcoma virus B77 (Bratislava strain; ID50 10-25/0.1 ml) and i. p. inoculation of sodium nitrite, great mortality occurred already on the 20th day p. i. On the 125th day p. i. the cumulative mortality in this group was 76.92%; on the other hand, in the control groups (rats inoculated with sodium nitrite or avian sarcoma virus) no deaths occurred before this period. The rats infected with a double dose of the virus were not observed to show pronounced changes in mortality. It was only on the 125th day that cumulative mortality in the group of rats infected with the avian sarcoma virus and rats inoculated s. c. with sodium nitrite was 87.5% and in the group of animals which had only been infected with the virus the mortality was 64.26%. The patho-morphological changes were in keeping with the hitherto described changes in rats infected with the avian sarcoma virus. In the trial no effect of sodium nitrite on the patho-morphological changes induced by the avian sarcoma virus was observed.