[Inhibition of 1,2-dimethylhydrazine-induced carcinogenesis in rat gut by the antidiabetic drug Diabenol].

Diabenol, a new Russian antidiabetic drug, was used to investigate its effect on 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH)-induced carcinogenesis in rat large gut. Five doses of 21 mg/kg DMH were injected at an interval of one week. Administration of 10 mg/kg diabenol with drinking water had no effect on either body mass or feed and water consumption. Yet, it was followed by a significant decrease in tumor incidence (4.22 vs. 5.77 tumors per tumor-bearers), frequency of neoplasms in the ascending colon (40.0% vs. 89.5%) and in their number (0.60% vs. 1.63 tumors per rat in a group). In the other groups, those indices tended to be still lower. Another tendency characteristic of the experimental group was a significantly high percentage of exophytic tumors (76.3% as compared with 50% in control) consisting of well-differentiated cells (47.4% and 14.7%, respectively) and with predominantly shallow invasion into the gut wall. Our results suggest the ability of the drug to inhibit DMH-induced carcinogenesis in the rat large gut.