Lack of effects of sodium 2-mercaptoethane sulfonate (mesna) on Ochratoxin A induced renal tumorigenicity following life-time oral administration of Ochratoxin A in DA and Lewis rats.

Sodium 2-mercaptoethane sulfonate (Mesna) reacts with urotoxic metabolites of oxazaphosphorine drugs (e.g. cyclophosphamide or ifosfamide) and has been used clinically to protect against damage induced by these aggressive anti-neoplastic drugs in the kidney and lower urinary and genital tracts. Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a potent nephrotoxin in several species. In order to elucidate whether mesna has curative or preventive effects on OTA-induced renal damage or renal tumor development, we administered OTA and/or mesna to both DA and Lewis rats for their life-time and examined kidney, urethra and urinary bladder histologically. OTA induced sex- and strain-specific renal tumors. However, there was no evidence of any effect of mesna on the incidence and distribution of any type of tumor or non-neoplastic finding in the kidney in either strain or treated group. In this study, we have confirmed that mesna treatment did not show any curative or preventive effects on either OTA-induced kidney damage or renal tumor development in two different strains that have distinct metabolic characteristics.