Mesovarian leiomyomas in the rat

Our plain-English summary of Mesovarian leiomyomas in the rat, by C. Gopinath, W.A. Gibson (Environmental Health Perspectives, 1987).

The study

• Authors: C. Gopinath, W.A. Gibson
• Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives
• Published: 1987;73:107-13
• Cited by: 16 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Prolonged treatment with two chemically distinct beta-stimulants, Salbutamol and Terbutaline, resulted in mesovarian leiomyomas in Sprague-Dawley rats. Development of these tumors induced by Salbutamol was prevented by concurrent administration of the beta-blocker Propranolol. Mesovarian leiomyomas induced by Salbutomol did not show any regression or progression during a 44-week postdosing recovery period. This report also gives the first recorded incidence of spontaneous mesovarian leiomyomas in the rat.

In plain English

This article does not concern asbestos. It reports an animal experiment on two drugs called beta-stimulants, Salbutamol and Terbutaline, given in the diet to female Sprague-Dawley derived rats. In Part I, groups of 55 rats received a low or high dose of either drug, or high-dose Salbutamol together with the beta-blocker Propranolol, for 104 weeks. Another 105 rats served as controls. Mesovarian leiomyomas, which are benign smooth muscle tumors of the mesovarium, were found in 16 of 55 rats on high-dose Salbutamol, 1 of 55 on low-dose Terbutaline and 7 of 55 on high-dose Terbutaline. None were found in controls, in rats on low-dose Salbutamol, or in rats given Salbutamol plus Propranolol. In Part II, 200 rats received high-dose Salbutamol for 80 weeks. Of the 102 rats that died or were killed by week 80, 17 had these tumors, and 22 of the remaining 98 had them during a 44-week recovery period. A review of 7748 untreated rats found four cases. No tumor showed evidence of malignancy. The authors concluded the lesions were neither reversible nor progressive.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Animal experiment in two parts (oral dosing in the diet), plus a retrospective review of ovary diagnoses from untreated rats in a laboratory database
• Who was studied: Female Charles River CD (Sprague-Dawley derived) rats at Huntingdon Research Centre, England. Part I had 105 controls and five treated groups of 55 rats each. Part II had 200 rats. The retrospective review covered 7748 untreated rats.
• Exposure: Not asbestos. The exposures were the beta-stimulant drugs Salbutamol sulfate (2 or 20 mg/kg/day) and Terbutaline sulfate (6 or 60 mg/kg/day for 62 weeks, then doubled to 12 or 120 mg/kg/day), and Salbutamol 20 mg/kg/day plus Propranolol 33 mg/kg/day, each given for 104 weeks in Part I. In Part II, Salbutamol 20 mg/kg/day was given for 80 weeks, followed by a recovery period without treatment up to week 124.
• Main results:
  • Part I: no rats with leiomyomas among the 105 controls or the 55 rats given Salbutamol plus Propranolol
  • Part I, Salbutamol 20 mg/kg/day group: 16 of 55 rats had mesovarian leiomyomas, with 23 tumors in total
  • Part I, Terbutaline 60/120 mg/kg/day group: 7 of 55 rats had leiomyomas, with 9 tumors in total. The Terbutaline 6/12 mg/kg/day group had 1 of 55. The Salbutamol 2 mg/kg/day group had 0, but 2 rats had smooth muscle hyperplasia.
  • Part I: the earliest leiomyoma appeared at week 56, in a rat from the Salbutamol 20 mg/kg/day group
  • Part II: 17 of the 102 rats that died or were killed by week 80 had mesovarian leiomyomas
  • Part II: another 22 of the remaining 98 rats had leiomyomas during the postdosing recovery period
  • Review of untreated rats: four spontaneous mesovarian leiomyomas in 7748 rat ovaries examined
  • None of the tumors examined showed evidence of malignancy
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that Salbutamol-induced lesions were neither reversible nor progressive after treatment stopped. They stated that induction of these tumors appears to be a general feature of beta-stimulants, that Propranolol prevented their development, and that such tumors also occur spontaneously in rats, though exceptionally rarely.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Mesothelioma, Ovarian cancer.

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