Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Carcinogenic Activity of 2-Naphthylamine

1956; Springer Nature; Volume: 10; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/bjc.1956.62

1532-1827

Georgiana M. Bonser, David B. Clayson, J. W. Jull, Leslie N. Pyrah,

Synthesis of Organic Compounds

HUEPER (1938) and Bonser (1943) established that carcinoma of the bladder may be induced by feeding 2-naphthylamine to dogs over a protracted period.In the more recent experiments of Bonser, Clayson, Jull and Pyrah (1952) the oral administration of 2-naphthylamine to mice resulted in a significant yield of liver tumours, but in 5 rabbits which survived 4 years of treatment the only changes induced were a small papilloma of the bladder in one and advanced epithelial hyperplasia in another.Bonser, Clayson and Jull (1951) presented evidence that 2-naphthylamine is carcinogenic by virtue of its conversion in the body to 2-amino-1-naphthol.On the basis of these findings, a hypothesis covering the mode of action of the aromatic amines in general has been put forward (Clayson, 1953).However, doubts as to the validity of these postulates have persisted due in part to the fact that in a few cases the injection of oily solutions of 2-naphthylamine (Hackmann, 1951) or of extracts of the chemical (Case and Pearson, 1952) has resulted in the appearance of subcutaneous sarcomas.Thus there was the possibility that the carcinogenic activity of 2-naphthylamine was due to an impurity present to a small extent in the substance used by Bonser (1943) and to a greater extent in the crude industrial material used by Hueper (1938).The following experiments were carried otit to test the local and distant carcinogenic properties of 2-naphthylamine following its subcutaneous injection into mice, and to discover whether the chemical, highly purified by gradient sublimation, as developed by Dr. R. A. M. Case (cf Henson, Somerville, Farquharson and Goldblatt, 1954), was carcinogenic to dogs.