Initial levels of azoxymethane-induced DNA methyl adducts are not predictive of tumor susceptibility in inbred mice

Inbred mice vary in susceptibility to colon carcinogens such as 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH). Differential susceptibility may depend, in part, on formation of promutagenic DNA methyl adducts within target colonic mucosa. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the extent of DNA adduct formation in susceptible (SWR) and resistant (AKR) mice acutely exposed to the colon carcinogen azoxymethane (AOM), a direct metabolite of DMH. In the first experiment, 8-week-old SWR and AKR mice were treated ip with 20 mg/kg AOM and sacrificed 6 h later. DNA was isolated from distal colon and liver, and O-6-methylguanine (O-6-MeGua) adduct levels were assessed by immunoslot blot (ISB) analysis, using a monospecific antibody raised against O-6-methyldeoxyguanosine. HPLC-fluorescence detection was also used to quantitate O-6-MeGua and 7-methylguanine (7-MeGua), and to generate standard curves, At 6 h, both O-6-MeGua and 7-MeGua were significantly higher (2- to 3-fold, p < 0.05) in AKR colon, while an opposite pattern was found in liver. In Experiment 2, mice were injected with AOM (20 mg/kg) and euthanized 12 and 48 h later. At 12 h, O-6-MeGua levels were higher in colons (1.4-fold) of SWR mice. Forty-eight hours after treatment, however, adduct levels in colon were markedly (5-fold) reduced in SWR but were unchanged from 12 h in AKR. To further compare activation of AOM in both strains, colon microsomes were incubated with AOM and calf thymus DNA. Comparable levels of O-6-MeGua were detected by ISB, demonstrating equivalent metabolic capacity in both SWR and AKR mice. These studies suggest that differential susceptibility to AOM-induced colon carcinogenesis is not based on initial target tissue DNA alkylation and unlikely to depend on differential metabolic capacity. (C) 1998 Academic Press.