Short Term Test for Evaluating Potential Carcinogenic Activity of Tobacco Condensates

Abstract

MOUSE skin has been used for many years as a convenient tissue for the assay of tumorigenic properties of tobacco condensates. This testing is prolonged and expensive, and the value of the results obtained is controversial; it is therefore desirable to find a way of shortening the experimental procedure. Sebaceous glands provide a convenient route of entry for substances painted on to the skin, and in particular for the lipid soluble carcinogenic hydrocarbons found in tobacco condensates, which can, in fact, be labelled and located in these glands. Polycyclic hydrocarbons in particular have been used to demonstrate the possibility of using destruction of sebaceous glands to indicate potential carcinogenic activity, and Bock and Mund^1,2 showed that if compounds with a benzanthracene structure are used the degree of destruction is related to tumorigenic activity. Unfortunately, some carcinogenic substances in which the benzanthracene structure is absent (for example, 7,9-dimethylbenz(c)-acridine) do not destroy the sebaceous glands; but this does not apply to tobacco condensates³.