Figure 1.

(A) Scheme of rat oral carcinogenesis and chemoprevention. Rats were exposed to oral carcinogen 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide (4NQO) (20 μg/ml in drinking water) for 14 weeks. Administration of dietary chemopreventive agent began at week 14 and continued for 6 weeks. Animals were sacrificed at week 20 for gross and histological analysis of tongue lesions and examination of cellular and molecular markers of carcinogenesis. N represents number of rats per group. (B) Average food consumption for the control and experimental rat groups during oral carcinogenesis and dietary intervention phases of the experimental protocol. Data are expressed as mean food consumption (grams/cage/day) ± SE in each rat cage belonging to an experimental group (three rats per cage). *p-value < 0.05 for food intake comparison between 4NQO-only rat group and 4NQO + ellagic acid (EA) rat group using independent Student’s t-test. (C) Average body weight measurements for control and experimental rat groups during the carcinogenesis and intervention phases of the experimental protocol. With the exception of the sentinel animals, all experimental animals were administered 4NQO and were on AIN-76A defined diet prior to intervention with dietary black raspberries (BRBs) or EA. Data are expressed as mean ± SE of all rats in the group.