Carcinogenic effect of dinitrosopiperazine in adult Swiss mice and after transplacental or translactational exposure.

Abstract

Abstract Dinitrosopiperazine, which can be formed from several commercial products, including Triforin ( N,N′ -piperazinidylbis-2,2,2-trichloroethylidene bisformamide), was found to be carcinogenic in adult Swiss mice, and in their transplacentally and translactationally exposed offspring. Adults were treated for 1 year, pregnant mothers in the third trimester of pregnancy, and lactating mothers for the first 20 days postpartum. Deaths attributable to the acute toxic effect of the carcinogen treatment amounted to 15% among the treated adult animals and to 57% in the transmaternally exposed animals. The incidence of tumors was significantly higher in the transmaternally exposed animals, and the latency time for appearance of tumors in treated adult animals was significantly shorter than in the controls. In untreated mice, the frequency of spontaneous tumors of all types was higher in females, whereas hepatocellular carcinomas in all treated groups and lung adenomas in adult and in the translactationally exposed group appeared at a higher frequency in males. These observations show that exposure of pregnant or lactating mothers to carcinogens may result in an increased incidence of tumors in their offspring when they reach maturity.