The relative contribution to development of hepatocellular carcinoma of the mouse equivalent to the human p53ser249 mutation, found in human hepatocellular carcinoma associated with aflatoxin (AFB1) exposure, is compared with other major risk factors in a transgenic mouse model. Transgenic p53ser246 mice, expressing the mutant protein gene under the control of a truncated albumin promoter, were bred to mice lacking p53 (p53؊/؊) and to transgenic mice expressing hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). AFB1 hepatocarcinogenesis was then determined in offspring with single or multiple risk factors by determination of the numbers of high-grade hepatic tumors at 13 months of age. In AFB1-treated male mice, expression of the p53ser246 mutation increases the incidence of high-grade tumors from 0% to 14% in HBsAg-negative, p53؉/؉ (wildtype homozygous) control mice; from 14% to 71% in HBsAg-negative, p53؉/؊ (wild-type heterozygous) mice; and from 62% to 100% in HBsAg-positive, p53؉/؉ mice. Thus, whereas HBsAg expression and AFB1 together are strongly cocarcinogenic, the presence of the p53ser246 mutant not only significantly enhances this cocarcinogenic effect, it also increases tumorigenesis in AFB1-treated p53 heterozygous and homozygous mice not expressing HBsAg. The possibility that the p53ser246 mutant protein may act as a promoting agent for AFB1 hepatocarcinogenesis is discussed. (HEPATOLOGY 1998;27:967-973.)The effect of the mouse equivalent to the human p53 mutation at position 249 resulting in an Arg to Ser mutation is examined in transgenic mouse models replicating the risk factors for development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in humans. The major cause of cancer mortality in subSaharan Africa and southern China is HCC. 1-3 Roughly two thirds of all cancer deaths in males and one third of cancer deaths in females in these areas are caused by HCC. [4][5][6][7] The high incidence of HCC is closely associated with liver injury caused by hepatitis B or C virus and consumption of food contaminated with aflatoxin (AFB1). 2,8,9 In the HCCs found in these high-risk areas a mutation in codon 249 of the p53 gene occurs with high frequency: 58% of HCCs from Qidong, China, and 53% from Mozambique. There is also a close association of the p53ser249 mutation in HCCs resulting from AFB1 exposure. 1,7 The objective of the work described in this paper is to determine, in transgenic mouse models, the contribution of the specific p53 mutation found in HCC in relationship to the other risk factors for human HCC. The p53ser246 mutation in the mouse corresponds to the p53ser249 mutation in humans. 10 The interaction of the major risk factors for human HCC and the effect of loss and specific mutation of p53 are examined in offspring of transgenic mice expressing the p53ser246 mutation bred to p53 null mice (p53ϩ/Ϫ) and to transgenic mice expressing hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), with and without exposure to AFB1. These conditions duplicate in an animal model the major risk factors for, and the most frequent genetic change in,...