Reversal by ribo- and deoxyribonucleosides of dehydroepiandrosterone-induced inhibition of enzyme altered foci in the liver of rats subjected to the initiation--selection process of experimental carcinogenesis.

The effect of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) on the activity of NADPH-producing enzymes and the development of enzyme-altered foci has been investigated in the liver of female Wistar rats subjected to an initiating treatment (a necrogenic dose of diethylnitrosamine) followed, 15 days later, by a selection treatment [a 15-day feeding of a diet containing 0.03% 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF), with a partial hepatectomy at the midpoint of this feeding]. At the end of the selection treatment all rat groups received, for 15 days, a basal diet containing, when indicated, 0.05% phenobarbital (PB) and/or 0.6% DHEA. The effect of DHEA on the activity of NADPH-producing enzymes was also studied in normal rats fed, for 15 days, a diet containing 0.6% DHEA and in their pair-fed controls. DHEA caused a 43-58% inhibition of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) and, respectively, 338-420% and 21-24% increases in malic enzyme (ME) and isocitric dehydrogenase activities in all rat groups. This was coupled with a great fall in the production of ribulose-5-phosphate, while no change in NADP+/NADPH ratio occurred. Hepatocytes, isolated from DHEA-treated rats, exhibited a very low activity of hexose monophosphate shunt (HMS), which was not stimulated by methylene blue, an exogenous oxidizing agent that markedly stimulated HMS activity in control hepatocytes. DHEA caused a great fall in the percentage of liver occupied by gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT)-positive foci, in the rats subjected to the initiation-selection treatments. PB enhanced the development of these foci, an effect which was completely overcome by DHEA. In addition, focal cells no longer expressed a G6PD activity higher than that of surrounding liver in DHEA-treated rats, but exhibited a high histochemical reaction for ME. DHEA also caused a great fall in labelling index of GGT-positive foci. Starting at the end of 2-AAF feeding, a mixture of ribonucleosides (RNs) of adenine, cytosine, guanine and uracil and of deoxyribonucleosides (DRNs) of adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine were injected i.p. every 8 h for 12 days to the rats subjected to the initiation-selection treatments plus PB. Rats were killed 3 days after the end of RN and DRN treatments. These treatments completely overcome the DHEA effect on the development of GGT-positive foci and DNA synthesis by the focal cells, without affecting G6PD activity of both whole liver and putative preneoplastic foci. Experiments with labeled nucleosides revealed that RNs and DRNs produced derivatives that were incorporated into liver DNA.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)