# TRANSPLACENTAL CARCINOGENESIS AND DIET

> **NIH NIH R01** · MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY · 1989 · $132,953

## Abstract

The primary objective of this work is to establish the time
during the life cycle when dietary fat is maximally effective in
altering the frequency of female reproductive system cancer.  The
relevance of this to human health is in relation to providing
guidance on the most critical time to control dietary fat intake
for cancer prevention.  A second purpose of the work is to
establish an animal model to investigate the mechanism of dietary
fat effect on cancer, so that preventive measures can eventually
be worked out for persons already programmed for an increased
cancer rate due to excessive dietary fat exposure.  Epidemiologic
data indicate that the sensitive period to dietary fat for female
reproductive system cancer is early in life.  Preliminary results
with an experiment on mice indicates that the period from shortly
before to shortly after pregnancy covers a developmental stage of
exceptional sensitivity to the programming of cancer by dietary
fat.  A more exact demonstration of the sensitive period will be
attempted by :  (1) embryo transfers tp test for a germ cell
effect.  (2) high fat exposure limited to fetal development to
test this period specifically, and (3) a fostering experiment to
test the nursing period.  In all cases, animals exposed to low
fat diet will be compared to animals exposed to a high fat diet.
In addition, the possibility of a multigenerational and
cumulative effect will be explored by raising second generation
offspring without, or with exposure to high and low fat diets
during the second pregnancy.  An inherent advantage to these
experiments is the establishment of an animal model for studies
on the mechanisms by which early exposure to a high fat diet
programs the individual for an increased susceptibility to cancer
later in life.  The test subjects utilized in the experiment that
produced the preliminary results were female offspring of female
CD-1 mice exposed prenatally to diethylstilbestrol.  These second
generation offspring have an increased susceptibility to uterine
cancer and high dietary fat produces an increased cancer rate of
sufficient magnitude to keep the required number of test subjects
within practical limits.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3178454
- **Project number:** 1R01CA039456-01A2
- **Recipient organization:** MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
- **SAM.gov UEI:** R28EKN92ZTZ9
- **Principal Investigator:** Bruce D Walker
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1989
- **Award amount:** $132,953
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 1989-05-01 → 1994-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3178454

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3178454, TRANSPLACENTAL CARCINOGENESIS AND DIET (1R01CA039456-01A2). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3178454. Licensed CC0.

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