Liver and forestomach tumors and other forestomach lesions in rats treated with morpholine and sodium nitrite, with or without sodium ascorbate

Administration to rats of ascorbate with morpholine and nitrite was previously shown to inhibit the liver tumor production and to enhance the induction of forestomach tumors, as compared to treatment with morpholine and nitrite. In a repetition of this experiment, 10 g morpholine/kg in the diet and 2 g sodium nitrite/liter in the drinking water were administered for life to male MRC-Wistar rats without (group 1) or with (group 2) 22.7 g sodium ascorbate/kg in the diet. Group 3 was untreated. Group 2 showed a lower liver tumor incidence with a longer latency than group 1, indicating a 78% inhibition by ascorbate of in vivo N-nitrosomorpholine (NMOR) formation. The incidence of forestomach papillomas was 3% in group 1, 38% in group 2, and 8% in group 3. The difference between groups 1 and 2 was not significant due to the shorter life-span of group 1. Group 1 and especially group 2 had more forestomach hyperplasia and hyperkeratosis than group 3. Ascorbate might have enhanced induction of these lesions because of an action synergistic with that of NMOR. However, it is most likely that the lowered NMOR dose and concomitantly increased survival produced by the ascorbate were solely responsible for the increased incidence of forestomach papillomas and other lesions in group 2.