Light and scanning electron microscopy of exfoliated bladder epithelial cells in rats fed N-[4-(5-Nitro-2-furyl)-2-thiazolyl]formamide

Urine specimens obtained periodically from weanling male F344 rats fed 0.2% N-[4-(5-nitro-2-furyl)-2-thiazolyl]formamide (FANFT) for 25 weeks followed by control diet for an additional 35 weeks, were examined by light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). LM revealed red blood cells and atypical transitional cells in the urine at 25 and 43 weeks, when microinvasive transitional cell carcinoma was present. Malignant transitional cells were seen in the urine by LM at 60 weeks, when muscle invasion was present in histologic sections. However, SEM showed pleomorphic microvilli on exfoliated urothelial cells as early as 10 weeks after the beginning of FANFT administration, and the microvilli became increasingly pleomorphic as the bladder lesions progressed to muscle invasion at 60 weeks. Noninvasive tumors were present in histologic sections of rat bladders examined at the end of 10 weeks of FANFT administration. The numerous microvilli on exfoliated bladder tumor cells were in sharp contrast to the peaked micro ridges of normal exfoliated superficial cells.