INFLUENCES OF SPHINGOSINE ON 2-STAGE SKIN TUMORIGENESIS IN SENCAR MICE

Sphingosine (SPH) was studied as an inhibitor of skin tumor promotion in skin cancer initiated by 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]-anthracene (DMBA) and promoted by 12-0-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). Two tumorigenesis studies were conducted using female Sencar mice treated with 10 nmol DMBA in 0.2 ml acetone at 8 weeks of age and promoted beginning 1 week later with 3.2 nmol TPA applied twice per week. In the high-dose study, 10-mu-mol SPH was applied 30 min before each TPA treatment. The low-dose study used 0.5, 0.05, or 0.01-mu-mol treatments with SPH 30 min before TPA. In the high-dose study SPH treatment alone following initiation by DMBA, and SPH treatment preceding TPA in DMBA-initiated mice accelerated the development of papillomas in comparison with the DMBA/TPA-treated group. The low-dose experiments showed no consistent alteration of tumorigenesis by SPH in the DMBA/TPA-treated groups, and low doses of SPH following DMBA did not promote skin tumorigenesis. SPH treatment did not alter body weight in either experiment.