Quantitative exposure of grafted rat tracheas to 7, 12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene.

A method was developed for continuously exposing tracheal epithelium to measured amounts of carcinogen. Beeswax was the vehicle for sustained release of carcinogen, and tracheas transplanted to s.c. sites were target tissues. In the experiment reported here, transplanted rat tracheas were exposed to a potent carcinogen, 7,12-di-methyl benz(a)anthracene (DMBA). The rate of release of DMBA from the beeswax carrier within the tracheal lumen approached first order when the initial concentration of carcinogen was high (3200 to 325 microng in a 24.45-mg pellet). With lower concentrations, where the carcinogen was dissolved in the beeswax, initial release was rapid, and most of the carcinogen was delivered within 4 weeks. At high DMBA dose levels, the entire tracheal epithelium was uniformly replaced by keratinizing squamous metaplasia after 1 week of exposure, and after 2 months, when from 280 to 910 microng DMBA had been delivered, all transplants had developed invasive squamous carcinomas. Sarcomas also developed in 19% of the transplants. At lower dose levels the epithelial reactions were more varied, and tumor development was more protracted. The lowest DMBA dose presently known to diduce carcinomas in this experimental model is 40 microng, which is in the dose range used for tumor initiation in skin carcinogenesis studies in mice.