Mechanistic studies of acetamide hepatocarcinogenicity.

Feeding male Leeds rats a diet containing 5 % acetamide (AA) for 17 months resulted in the development of hepatic cell neoplasms in all animals (Flaks et al., 1983). Many studies have reported that AA does not show genotoxic effects. However, Pienta et al. (1977) found that AA transformed Syrian hamster embryo cells in culture. N-Hydroxyacetamide (N-OH-AA), a possible metabolite of AA, has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration under the orphan drug products program for treatment of infection-induced renal stones (in: Putcha et al., 1984). This study was undertaken attempting to shed light on the mechanism of AA hepatocarcinogenicity.