Prevention of spontaneous and chemically-induced carcinogenesis using activated carbon fiber adsorbent. I. Effect of the activated carbon fiber adsorbent `Aqualenʹ on spontaneous carcinogenesis and life-span in mice

Female SHR mice were fed the activated carbon fiber adsorbent Aqualen® beginning at the age of 3 months through their life. Mice were fed Aqualen five times per week together with lab chow at a daily dose of 100 mg/kg b.w. The addition of Aqualen into food did not significantly influence the dynamics of body weight and the mean life-span of the animals. At the same time, the age at 90% mortality of mice was 4 months longer in the group exposed to Aqualen. There were no statistically significant differences in the incidence of all tumors and malignant tumors in the group of mice treated with Aqualen as compared with the control group. However, in the group of mice exposed to Aqualen, there was a 1.4 times reduction of the mean number of tumors per mouse. Feeding mice with the adsorbent led to a 4 months longer life-span in animals with any tumors and to a 5 months longer life-span in animals bearing malignant tumors (P<0.05). No carcinogenic effect of Aqualen was found. It could be supposed that Aqualen has some geroprotective and anticarcinogenic properties.