Chemoprevention of tobacco smoke-induced lung tumors in A/J strain mice with dietary myo-inositol and dexamethasone

A/J strain mice were fed AIN-76A diet supplemented with myo-inositol/dexamethasone (10 g and 0.5 mg/kg diet) or acetylsalicylic acid (300 mg/kg) and exposed for 5 months to a mixture of sidestream and mainstream cigarette smoke at a concentration of 132 mg total suspended particulates/m(3). After tobacco smoke exposure, they were allowed to recover for another 4 months in filtered air. In the animals fed AIN-75A diet alone or acetylsalicylic acid, the average number of tumors/lung was 2.1, whereas in the animals given the myo-inositol/dexamethasone diet, the average lung tumor multiplicity was 1.0 (P < 0.05). In animals exposed to filtered air, lung tumor multiplicities were 0.6 for animals fed AIN-76A or myo-inositol/dexamethasone and 1.2 for animals fed acetylsalicylic acid. It was concluded that the combination of myo-inositol and dexamethasone constitutes an effective chemopreventive regimen against tobacco smoke-induced lung tumorigenesis.