Chronic subacute (incl. one subchronic study) exposure of Wistar rats to (non-)carcinogenic compound

The carcinogenic potential of chemicals is currently evaluated with rodent life-time bioassays, which are time consuming, and expensive with respect to cost, number of animals and amount of compound required. For insight into early mechanisms of non-genotoxoc carcinogenesis and for identification of potential early biomarkers of non-genotoxic carcinogenesis, groups of rats were treated with a range of known non-genotoxic carcinogens for a period of 14, 28, or 90 days, and liver tissue was harvested for expression profiling. Control groups were treated with appropriate vehicles.当前化学品致癌潜能的评估多采用啮齿类动物终生生物实验（rodent life-time bioassays），但该方法不仅耗时漫长，且在实验成本、所需动物数量及受试化合物用量方面均具有较高的经济成本。为解析无遗传毒性致癌作用（non-genotoxic carcinogenesis）的早期发生机制，并鉴定该类致癌过程的潜在早期生物标志物，研究人员将多组大鼠暴露于一系列已知的无遗传毒性致癌物，暴露时长分别设置为14天、28天或90天，随后采集大鼠肝脏组织进行表达谱分析（expression profiling）。对照组大鼠则给予相应的赋形剂进行对照处理。