Changes in lipid profiles of estrogen-induced and transplanted renal carcinomas in Syrian hamsters

The lipid profiles of estrogen-induced primary renal carcinomas and hormone-dependent and -independent transplanted tumors were compared with those of both normal hamster kidneys and renal tissues of tumor-bearing animals. Autonomous tumors had only one-third the amount of triglycerides present in normal kidneys and hormone-dependent tumors contained intermediate levels. Host kidneys of animals bearing either primary or transplanted tumors contained no more than 50-60% of the triglyceride level found in normal kidneys. In contrast to triglycerides, cholesteryl esters in primary tumors were 200 times higher than in normal kidneys, exhibited a successive decline in hormone-dependent and -independent tumors, but remained 15 times higher in autonomous carcinomas than in normal kidneys. Cholesterol levels were similar in primary tumors, normal kidneys, and host kidneys of animals bearing renal tumors; however, both hormone-dependent and -independent neoplasms had only one-half to two-thirds as much cholesterol as normal kidneys. Total phospholipid levels in primary and transplanted carcinomas were about one-half those in normal kidneys. Host kidneys of animals bearing primary and transplanted, hormone-dependent neoplasms also contained lower phospholipid levels than normal kidneys, but renal tissues from animals with autonomous tumors contained similar levels to those found in kidneys from normal hamsters. The phospholipid composition of primary and transplanted renal tumors was similar, but different from that of normal kidneys, mainly in increased percentages of phosphatidylcholine and decreased percentages of sphingomyelin.