Protective effects of benzyl isothiocyanate and sulforaphane but not resveratrol against initiation of pancreatic carcinogenesis in hamsters.

Potential chemopreventive effects of naturally occurring agents were investigated using a new 16-week medium-term pancreatic carcinogenesis models in hamsters. Male 6-week-old Syrian hamsters were subcutaneously injected with 10mg/kg body weight N-nitrosobis(2-oxopropyl)amine (BOP) four times within a week, and fed a diet supplemented with 80ppm benzyl isothiocyanate (BITC), 80ppm sulforaphane (SFN) or 10ppm resveratrol (RES) during the initiation or post-initiation stages. For the initiation stage, each chemical was given for 3 weeks including 1 week before and after the BOP injections. With post-initiation exposure, the groups were changed from basal diet 1 week after the last BOP injection, and then fed each chemical for 14 weeks. All the animals were sacrificed after 16 weeks. The multiplicities of combined pancreatic lesions including atypical hyperplasias and adenocarcinomas were significantly decreased by BITC and SFN given in the initiation but not the post-initiation stage. On the other hand, RES, a naturally occurring inhibitor of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) reported chemopreventive effects, failed to show significant effects on pancreatic carcinogenesis in either the initiation or post-initiation stages. Our data suggest that the naturally occurring isothiocyanates BITC and SFN can block BOP-initiation of hamster pancreatic carcinogenesis.