• Investigating the Effect of Acrylamide and The Risk of Various Types of Cancer
  • Arezoo sadeghi,1,*
    1. Msc of Molecular Genetic Department of Genetics, Zanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan, Iran.


  • Introduction: Often used in industry, acrylamide, also known as 2-propenamide (AA, C3H5NO), is a white, crystalline solid that dissolves in water and has a relative molecular mass of 71.08 kDa. AA was included in the International Agency for Research on Cancer's 1994 list of industrial chemicals that may cause cancer in people. Examining the relationship between acrylamide and the risk of different cancer types was the goal of this investigation.
  • Methods: The present study whit acrylamide and cancer keywords was done by searching scientific databases such as Science Direct, Springer, Google Scholar and PubMed.
  • Results: Acrylamide is a multiorgan carcinogen in both rats and mice, according to positive bioassays of the substance's carcinogenicity in experimental animals. These findings strongly suggest that acrylamide may be a risk for human cancer. Two studies using oral administration of acrylamide in Fischer 344 rats examined the drug's carcinogenic potential. In the first experiment, it increased the incidence of thyroid follicular tumors, mammary tumors, glial tumors of the central nervous system, oral cavity papillomas, uterine adenocarcinomas, and clitoral gland adenomas in females, as well as peritesticular mesotheliomas and follicular adenomas in males. In the second experiment, acrylamide increased the incidences of thyroid follicular cell tumors in both sexes, mammary gland tumors in females, and peritesticular mesotheliomas in males. If all of these tumors found in treated rats had been included in the data analysis, this would have been interpreted as increasing the incidence of primary tumors of the central nervous system. elevated the occurrences of malignant lymphomas, uterine adenocarcinomas, and mammary carcinomas in female mice, as well as lung tumors and Harderian gland tumors in mice of both sexes. Inhaling ethylene oxide increased the incidence of brain tumors and mononuclear cell leukemias in both sexes of Fischer 344 rats, as well as male-specific peritesticular mesotheliomas and subcutaneous fibromas. It was specified that gliomas, granular cell tumors, and "malignant reticulosis" were among the brain malignancies. By the same mechanism as glycidamide, ethylene oxide exhibits chemical reactivity. It should be noted that carcinogens acting through genotoxic mechanisms frequently cause tumors of endocrine glands and hormone-dependent tissues in rats and mice. Additionally, the presence of thyroid, mammary, or other tumors in a bioassay does not always indicate that the test agent's mode of carcinogenic action is hormonal dysregulation rather than genotoxicity. Furthermore, every known carcinogen for the rodent nervous system is either biotransformed to a genotoxic metabolite or is itself genotoxic. Acrylamide, administered intraperitoneally or orally, enhanced the incidence and multiplicity of lung cancers in strain A mice in short-term screening bioassays. Additionally, following oral, intraperitoneal, and topical administration to mice of one strain and oral administration to animals of another strain, followed by topical treatment with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate, acrylamide was investigated as an initiating agent for skin carcinogenesis. Regardless of the mode of administration, it caused a dose-related increase in the incidence of skin carcinomas and squamous-cell papillomas in each of the four trials. These short-term studies lacked a thorough assessment of tumor incidence in organs apart from the skin and lung. Since the percentage of acrylamide converted to glycidamide is significantly higher in mice than in rats, a traditional long-term bioassay in mice is required.
  • Conclusion: In Summary given that mice convert acrylamide to glycidamide more efficiently than rats do, a standard 2-year bioassay in mice may identify more organ sites for carcinogenicity as well as a larger degree of carcinogenic consequences.Since there are no published data on the carcinogenicity of this putatively carcinogenic metabolite of acrylamide in any species, a bioassay including mice, rats, or both is also required. Glycidamide bioassays are currently being conducted at the National Center for Toxicological Research in the United States (Doerge, personal communication). When the meal is autoclaved or crumbled and fried like a pancake, acrylamide is created in the feed used to raise rats and mice. It is unknown and has to be determined how this pollution affects the background tumor rates in mice and rats that serve as controls.
  • Keywords: Acrylamide, Toxicological, Center, Glycidamide