Changes in pepsinogen isozymes in stomach carcinogenesis induced in rats by N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine.

Changes in the isozymes of pepsinogen (Pg) separated from the glandular stomachs of rats were studied by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis during carcinogenesis induced by N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), from the beginning of MNNG administration to 3 months after the end of its 7-month regimen. In 13 of 25 rats killed successively, one (Pg 1) of the three pepsinogen isozymes (Pg 1, 3, 4) normally present in the pyloric mucosa had decreased or disappeared. It decreas was observed from 1 week after the beginning of MNNG treatment to at least 3 months after the end of the 7-month MNNG administration. Remarkable histopathologic changes were found from 8 months after MNNG was given, and rats showing such unusual histopathologic alterations also had changes in their pepsinogen isozyme pattern. In 4 of 27 rats, two (Pg 1, 2) of the four isozymes of pepsinogen (Pg 1-4) in the fundic mucosa decreased or disappeared from 3 months after the beginning of MNNG treatment to at least 2 months after the end of its 7-month administration. Histopathologic changes induced by MNNG were not as remarkable in the fundic mucosa as in the pyloric mucosa.