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Nutritive Value of Protein and Tumor-Host Relationship in the Rat¹

Bureau of Biological Research and Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N. J.

The effects of dietary protein upon the development of three types of transplanted tumors were studied in the rat. A sarcoma developed at essentially the same rate in rats fed diets containing wheat gluten, casein or beef but was slightly depressed in animals fed egg albumin. The bodies of the rats, however, developed according to the nutritive value of the protein, growing poorly in animals fed wheat gluten and at a maximum in those fed egg albumin. During the terminal stages the sarcoma increased catabolism and depleted normal tissues but increased relatively the liver protein and liver fat above pair fed controls. Similar effects on tumor and body growth were observed in rats bearing the Walker carcinoma 256. The development of the Flexner-Jobling carcinoma, on the other hand, was very poor in animals fed wheat gluten and maximum in rats fed egg albumin, a response that was more like the body tissues. Supplementation of the casein diet with methionine or methionine plus guanidoacetic acid had beneficial effects upon the development of normal tissues in the presence of the sarcoma or Walker carcinoma 256, but was much less beneficial in the presence of the Flexner-Jobling carcinoma. The suggestion was made that tumors may vary as do normal tissues in their interrelationships to body metabolic pools, some tissue proteins being depleted more than others, some not at all in the presence of inadequate amino acid intake. A possible correlation between protein anabolic, catabolic influence of these tumors and the effects of ethylenephosphoramides was also suggested.

Manuscript received 11 May 1956.