Obesity increases mammary tumor development in Zucker rats following a single administration of the procarcinogen 7,12-dimenthylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA). Fifty-day-old obese and lean female Zucker rats were orally gavaged with 65 mg/kg DMBA and sacrificed 139 days post DMBA treatment. At the end of the experiment, mammary tumors were detected in 68% of the obese rats compared to 32% of the lean group (P<0.001). 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectra obtained for hydrophilic and lipophilic extracts from excised tumors illustrated fundamental differences in metabolic profiles between the two groups. Differences were observed for key choline compounds, namely phosphocholine and glycerophosphocholine, both markers of malignancy and apoptosis. In addition, levels of lactate, creatine, myo-inositol, α-glucose, alanine, leucine, glutamate, glutamine, tyrosine, phenylalanine, and NADH varied between the lean and obese groups. Principal component analysis indicated class separation between tumors from lean and obese rats based on their metabolic profiles, illustrating the potential for using 1H-NMR metabolomic methods for identifying altered metabolic pathways. Our results suggest that obesity enhances the risk for DMBA-induced mammary tumor development in rats. However, the mechanism for this increase in risk is currently unknown and will require further studies for elucidation.

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