The human diet contains a great variety of natural mutagens and carcinogens, as well as many natural antimutagens and anticarcinogens. Many of these mutagens and carcinogens may act through the generation of oxygen radicals. Oxygen radicals may also play a major role as endogenous initiators of degenerative processes, such as DNA damage and mutation (and promotion), that may be related to cancer, heart disease, and aging. Dietary intake of natural antioxidants could be an important aspect of the body’s defense mechanism against these agents. Many antioxidants are being identified as anticarcinogens. Characterizing and optimizing such defense systems may be an important part of a strategy of minimizing cancer and other age-related diseases.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/221/4617/1256.full.pdf

Dietary carcinogens and anticarcinogens Oxygen radicals and degenerative diseases

We describe 14 patients with congenital absence of the vagina associated with a variable abnormality of the uterus and review the literature. Associated developmental anomalies of the urinary tract and skeleton are common. As a result of the analysis of two affected families, we believe that the disorder may represent the variable manifestation of a single underlying genetic defect that can be expressed alone or in any combination of vertebral, renal, and genital abnormalities. Some affected persons may have lethal manifestations such as absence of both kidneys, and some cases may result from multifactoral causes rather than a single gene defect. Whatever the cause, the defect involves mesodermal development and the mesonephric kidney, the latter resulting in abnormalities in the paramesonephros (uterus and vagina) and in the metanephric kidney. Both nonoperative and surgical treatments are generally successful in repairing the vaginal abnormality.

Congenital absence of the vagina. The Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome.

Publisher Summary Nutrition is related to the development of cancer in three ways: (1) food additives or contaminants may act as carcinogens, cocarcinogens, or both; (2) nutrient deficiencies may lead to biochemical alterations that promote neoplastic processes; and (3) changes in the intake of selected macronutrients may produce metabolic and biochemical abnormalities, either directly or indirectly, which increase the risk for cancer. Specific carcinogens play a minor role as initiators in the relationship between nutrition and the development of cancer. This chapter covers six types of cancer: large bowel cancer, colon carcinogenesis, stomach cancer, cancer of the upper alimentary and respiratory tract, cancer of the pancreas, and breast cancer. In four of these—breast, large bowel, stomach, and head and neck—the epidemiologic evidence is overwhelming that nutritional factors have a major etiological role. Dietary factors are also implicated in the etiologies of the two remaining types of cancer—pancreas and prostate—but the epidemiologic evidence is not overwhelming. The chapter also presents an evaluation of the status of the relationship between nutrition and cancer in man, discusses the use of animal models to determine if the etiological factors established for man can be modified in an experimental setting, and makes recommendations for additional research and possible preventive measures.

Nutrition and its relationship to cancer

Chapter 5 – Hematology and Clinical Biochemistry

The Psychopharmacology of Aggression

The effects of several dose levels of cannabis have been studied by an ethological analysis of encounters between male mice injected with the drug and partners injected with Tween-saline. The duration of immobility was directly related to the logarithm of the dose of cannabis given. The ratio of flight in the treated animals to aggression in those mice with which they were paired showed a progressive increase as the dose of cannabis was raised from 4–50 mg/kg. A straight line relationship was found to exist between the logarithm of flight/aggression and the logarithm of the dose of cannabis administered.

Effects of cannabis resin on social behaviour in the laboratory mouse

The sensitivity of function tests in detecting liver damage in the rat.

The effects of cannabis at two dose levels on the behaviour shown by male mice encountering untreated females has been studied by ethological analysis and compared with the behaviour of control males in a similar situation. At a dose level of 12.5 mg cannabis/kg, male mice showed a significant reduction in Mounts and Attempted Mounts although other categories of behaviour were not affected. At a dose level of 25.0 mg/kg, not only Mounts and Attempted Mounts but also other forms of Social and Sexual Investigation were significantly decreased by administration of cannabis, Aggression was reduced and periods of Immobility occurred. A decrease in the frequency and increase in the duration of Non-Social Activity were seen in these mice as a result of the periods of Immobility following cannabis administration.

Cannabis resin and sexual behaviour in the laboratory mouse

The behavioural effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in mice and rats have been studied by an ethological analysis of encounters between animals injected with the drug and partners injected with the solvent (Tween-saline). In both species, Immobility was increased and Non-Social Activity reduced after injections of 5 mg/kg of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. Flight was increased in treated mice but not in treated rats. Aggression was not significantly altered in either species. Thus, in the mouse, the qualitative behavioural effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol were similar to those previously reported for crude cannabis resin. Comparison of the dose-response data indicated that some other constituents of cannabis may reduce the Flight reaction from delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol although not interfering with Immobility.

Margaret G. Cutler

Papers

Effects of cannabis resin on social behaviour in the laboratory mouse

The sensitivity of function tests in detecting liver damage in the rat.

Cannabis resin and sexual behaviour in the laboratory mouse

Effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol on social behaviour in the laboratory mouse and rat.

Malformations produced in mice and rats by oxidized linoleate