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Acute Necrosis of Adrenal Cortex and Corpora Lutea Induced by 7,12-Dimethylbenzanthracene and Its Implication in Carcinogenesis^*

Ting-Wa Wong, Nancy E. Warner and N. C. Yang

( Departments of Pathology and Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois)

We have observed recently the striking steric resemblance of carcinogenic polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons to steroid hormones and suggested, consequently, that these two classes of compounds may act at the same sites biologically. The present findings lend indirect support to this theory.

Female Sprague-Dawley rats 51–57 days old were tube-fed a single dose of 20 mg. of 7,12-dimethylbenzanthracene (DMBA) in 1 ml. of sesame oil. Five to twenty treated rats were killed daily thereafter for 45 days, with untreated rats as controls. Microscopic studies revealed acute adrenal cortical necrosis in fifteen of the eighteen animals (83 per cent) killed on the 3d day after feeding of DMBA. In addition, acute necrosis of the corpora lutea of the ovaries was observed in nine of the eighteen animals (50 per cent) killed on the 3d day and in one of the twenty animals (5 per cent) killed on the 4th day after feeding of the compound. The selective nature of the necrosis induced by DMBA in the adrenal cortex and corpora lutea, where steroid hormones are synthesized, and its implication in carcinogenesis are discussed.

^* This study was supported by research grant (C-5894) from the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Public Health Service.

Fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Received 4/24/62.