Natural Dietary Ingredients (Oats and Alfalfa) Induce Covalent DNA Modifications (I-Compounds) in Rat Liver and Kidney

Mammalian tissue DNA has recently been found, via ³²P postlabeling, to contain complex profiles of age-dependent bulky carcinogen adductlike covalent modifications, which have been termed I-compounds, referring to their apparent indigenous origin without exposure to exogenous carcinogens. I-compound patterns are highly species, sex, tissue, and diet specific. As shown here, the presence of certain plant ingredients in diet, i.e., ground oats and alfalfa meal, significantly contributed to the formation of these DNA derivatives. Six groups of weanling female Sprague-Dawley rats were fed one of the following diets for three months: a natural ingredient diet containing neither oats nor alfalfa (Wayne MRH 22/5 Rodent Blox), Wayne diet supplemented with oats or alfalfa or both, a purified semisynthetic diet (AIN-76A), and AIN diet supplemented with oats. The natural ingredient diet produced more complex patterns and higher levels of I-compounds than purified diet in both liver and kidney DNA. Supplementation of either diet with oats elicited the formation of four additional oats-specific I-compounds in liver DNA. Oats and alfalfa, individually and in combination, tended to significantly raise nonpolar and diminish polar I-compound levels. To determine whether the oats-related extra spots were derived from mycotoxin contamination, two groups of rats were fed either Wayne diet or Wayne diet containing zearalenone (0.05 mg/kg) for three weeks. Zearalenone significantly increased the uterine weight but did not induce any DNA adduct formation. These findings establish a novel link between specific natural food ingredients and carcinogen adductlike DNA derivatives and may provide a model to investigate events occurring at the juncture of nutrition, metabolism, gene expression, aging, and cancer.