Effect of colchicine injection prior to the initiating phase of two-stage skin carcinogenesis in mice.

Colchicine injected 5, 9 and 24 h respectively before initiation (using s.c. injection of urethane for initiating action and TPA skin applications for promoting action, in female ICR mice) led to a significant increase in skin tumour incidence in the --9-h group, and an increase in percentage malignancy in both the --5- and --9-h groups. These times corresponded to the peak of metaphase arrest by the colchicine. The results are discussed in relation in those of Pound and Withers (1963) and others, who found that mitotic stimulation at the time of urethane initiating action raised the ultimate tumour incidence; and the inference is drawn that initiating action in mouse skin may occur during the M phase, rather than during the G1, S, or G2 phases, as suggested by others

Leukaemogenic action of phorbol in intact and thymectomized mice of different strains.

Phorbol, the unesterified parent alcohol of the skin promoter TPA, was administered i.p., twice weekly, throughout the lifetime of mice of 7 inbred strains: males and females of AKR/J, C3Heb and BALB/c, and females of SJL/J, DBA/2, SWR and C57BL. A striking difference in strain response was observed, with a pronounced leukaemogenic effect in SWR, a signficiant shortening of the latent period for spontaneous reticulum cell sarcomas (RCNB) in SJL/J, and no demonstrable effect in the other strains. When mice of 3 of the above-mentioned strains (SWR, SJL/J and AKR/J) were thymectomized prior to the beginning of phorbol treatment, different patterns of response were again observed. Thymectomy did not influence the leukaemia incidence in SWR mice, slightly inhibited RCNB development in SJL/J mice and converted phorbol into a leukaemogenic agent for AKR/J mice