This study demonstrates the tumor promoting effect at a distant site of skin wounding, in a model of colon carcinogenesis induced by 1,2 dimethylhydrazine (DMH) in the rat. Six-week-old male Wistar rats were given subcutaneous injections of DMH, 20mg/kg, or saline, once a week, for eight weeks. One week after the last DMH injection the animals received a full thickness skin wound in their dorsal skin and the wound was left open to heal by second intention. Control and DMH-treated rats, with or without skin wounds were killed at the 12th week, just after healing of the skin wound was complete. The colons were removed and divided into proximal and distal parts. Each segment was rolled as "Swiss roll"and processed for histology. The incidence, distribution and morphology of the colon tumors was recorded. The total number of tumors in the colonic mucosa and the number of tumors per rat was significantly higher in the skin-wounding DMH- treated group than in the unwounded group. In the histopathological analysis of the colon the number of poorly differentiated mucin-secreting carcinomas was 6-fold in the skin-wounding DMH-treated group than in the unwounded group and the majority of tumors were located near to lymphoid aggregates. The present results suggest that wound healing enhances tumor development at a distant site, such as the colon, and this effect seems to be related to tumor histology.
Wound healing; Colonic neoplasms; 1,2 dimethylhydrazine; Rats; Carcinogens
