Dose-dependent effects of butylated hydroxyanisole, butylated hydroxytoluene and ethoxyquin for promotion of bladder carcinogenesis in N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl)nitrosamine-initiated, unilaterally ureter-ligated rats

Dose-dependent effects of 3 antioxidants, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA, 2.0, 1.0 and 0.5%), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT, 1, 0.5 and 0.25%) and ethoxyquin (0.5, 0.25 and 0.125%) on the development of preneoplastic lesions in the bladder of N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl)nitrosamine (BBN)-treated rats were investigated. Feeding of the antioxidants after pretreatment of 0.05% BBN commenced and unilateral ureteric ligation was combined at week 3 of the experiment. Surviving rats were killed at the end of week 24. BHA and BHT, but not ethoxyquin increased dose-dependently the incidence and number of preneoplastic lesions, papillary or nodular hyperplasia of the urinary bladder in rats treated with BBN. Particularly, the incidence and number of PN hyperplasia in rats treated with 2.0% BHA and 1.0% BHT were significantly higher than those of the control group. Thus, promoting activities of BHA and BHT, but not ethoxyquin for the urinary bladder were confirmed in this system of BBN-initiated, unilaterally ureter-ligated rats.