| Summary: | BACKGROUND: Glycidol is used in the production of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals and as a stabilizer in vinyl polymers. Glycidol is known to cause cancer in rats and mice. We tested glycidol in a genetically modified mouse strain that lacks two tumor suppressor genes as part of a study to determine if this mouse model could detect cancer-causing chemicals more rapidly than the standard 2-year rodent bioassay. METHODS: We exposed groups of male or female haploinsufficient p16Ink4a/p19Arf mice by depositing solutions of glycidol in deionized water directly into the animals' stomachs through a tube five times per week for 40 weeks. The daily doses were 25, 50, 100, or 200 milligrams of glycidol per kilogram of body weight; other animals receiving only water served as the control groups. Tissues from 22 organs were examined for every animal. RESULTS: Exposure to glycidol caused increased rates of histiocytic sarcomas in male haploinsufficient p16Ink4a/p19Arf mice. Male mice receiving the highest dose of glycidol also had hyperplasia of the forestomach and neuronopathy of the brain. Female haploinsufficient p16Ink4a/p19Arf mice receiving the highest dose of glycidol had alveolar/bronchiolar adenomas of the lung and squamous cell papillomas of the forestomach, as well as epithelial hyperplasia of the forestomach and neuronopathy of the brain. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that glycidol caused histiocytic sarcomas in male haploinsufficient p16Ink4a/p19Arf mice and alveolar/bronchiolar adenomas of the lung in female haploinsufficient p16Ink4a/p19Arf mice. Forestomach papillomas in female mice may also have been associated with exposure to glycidol
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