Surgical treatment of non-neoplastic lesions of the terminal portions of the biliary and pancreatic ducts and major duodenal papilla]

The author presents his classification of the operations on major duodenal papilla and terminal portions of the common bile and pancreatic ducts. Indications for various types of operations are set forth.     

Transplacental effect of diethylstilbestrol in female rats.

The effect of diethylstilbestrol propionate (DES; 1 mg/kg body wt. was studied in the female offspring of rats exposed subcutaneously on the 19th day of gestation. Examination of vaginal smears showed persistent estrus in adult rats treated prenatally with DES. Compensatory ovarian hypertrophy (COH) induced by hemicastration of these rats was not suppressed by estrogens. A per oral test for glucose-tolerance revealed decreased utilization of glucose in the offspring of DES-treated rats. Preliminary observations demonstrated that tumors developed in 14 of 18 (77.8%) progeny transplacentally expoed to DES and in 9 of 34 (26.5%) intact control rats. Tumors of the ovary and the endometrium were found only in the rats treated prenatally with DES; no tumors of the uterine cervix or vagina were observed in either experimental or control groups. It is suggested that a transplacental effect of DES in the female is impairment of the sex differentiation of the hypothalamus. The resulting hormonal and metabolic shifts might promote tumorigenesis.     

Persistence of carcinogenic effect in intact progeny of mice treated transplacentally with 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene

Pregnant SHR mice were treated once with 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) on days 17-19 of gestation. F1 and F2 descendants of these mice received multiple skin applications of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) twice a week for 24 weeks beginning at 12 weeks of age, or applications of solvent alone. The increase in the frequency of skin tumours in F1 and F2 descendants was reported elsewhere. In addition, we report here an increase in overall numbers of tumor-bearing animals, independently of TPA treatment both in F1 and F2 groups compared to respective control groups. Separate statistical analyses were performed for lung tumours, mammary gland tumours, leukaemias and lymphomas. In both generations of descendants of DMBA-treated mothers lung tumour incidence was considerably increased and differed significantly (maximal P-value = 0.003) from control values. Local applications of TPA resulting in strong skin tumour promoting effect described in our previous paper (Napalkov et al., Carcinogenesis, 8(3) (1987) 381) did not produce any significant change in the rates of other types of tumours. The results of the present study provide additional evidence in support of the hypothesis on possibility of hereditary transmission of carcinogenic action of certain chemical compounds.     

Activity of O6-alkylguanine-DNA alkyl transferase in the liver, kidney and white blood cells of rats of different ages.

Age-related differences in the sensitivity of rats to alkylating carcinogens may be dependent on various factors, including the cellular levels of O6-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (AT). In the present study, the levels of AT were measured in protein extracts prepared from liver, kidney and peripheral white blood cells of male outbred rats aged 1, 4, 14, 22 and 36 months. The AT level (expressed as activity per milligram protein) in liver extracts was lower in rats aged 1, 4 or 36 months than in extracts prepared from rats aged 14 or 22 months. This observation of a variation in AT level with age is in agreement with our previous results. The AT levels in kidney and white blood cells did not differ significantly with age, and in all cases the AT levels were lower than those observed in the liver extracts, the kidney extracts having more AT activity than the white blood cell extracts. The total protein content of both liver and kidney tissues, calculated per gram of wet tissue, increased to a maximum at 14 months and subsequently declined, the total protein content being always higher in the liver than in the kidney. In contrast, the DNA content per gram of wet tissue was highest in young animals and subsequently declined to a minimum at 14 months. The implications of this inverse relationship to the levels of AT activity are discussed.     

Increased tumour incidence and skin tumour promotion in two generations of descendants of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-treated pregnant mice

Many experiments suggest the possibility of hereditary transmission of a predisposition to developing cancer. If this is the case, the progeny of animals exposed to carcinogens during embryogenesis should bear initiated cells. In order to examine this possibility, offspring of mice exposed to 7,12-dimethyl-benz[a]anthracene in utero were treated cutaneously with a tumour promoter, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate. This treatment resulted in the development of skin tumours, i.e., papillomas and carcinomas. Moreover, various tumours also developed in many internal organs, and particularly in the lung. These findings suggest that exposure to carcinogens may not only increase cancer risk in subsequent generations, but also considerably reinforce sensitivity to tumour-promoting factors, which by themselves may pose no threat to an unexposed population.     

Indications for surgery in acute and chronic hepatitis

The author considers that the participation of surgeons in the treatment of patients with acute and chronic hepatitis may be promising. The operation for acute hepatitis is aimed at liquidation of another disease of the patients, that for chronic hepatitic is fulfilled in order to relieve severe manifestations of the disease.