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Effects of the prenylated flavonoid from hops, xanthohumol, in tumour development in MCF‐7 xenografted mice
Author(s) -
Monteiro Rosário,
Guerreiro Susana,
Soares Raquel,
Calhau Conceição
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.4.a568-d
Subject(s) - xanthohumol , in vivo , mcf 7 , apoptosis , pharmacology , subcutaneous injection , cancer research , flavonoid , medicine , cancer , prenylation , breast cancer , chemistry , endocrinology , biology , biochemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , human breast , ecology , enzyme , key (lock) , antioxidant
Food habits widely determine the incidence of some diseases, including cancer. Flavonoids are being attributed all kinds of chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic properties. Xanthohumol (XN), a prenylflavonoid from hops, has also been reported to reduce the growth of tumour cells in culture. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of XN treatment in tumour proliferation in vivo. Eight nude mice [N:NIH (s) strain II] received subcutaneous implants of estradiol‐releasing pellets one day prior to the beginning of the experiment. Fifty million MCF‐7 breast cancer cells were injected in the subcutaneous mammary fat pads. The mice were divided into two groups and treated either with XN (100 μM in the drinking water) or the solvent (ethanol, 0.1%). After 54 days of treatment, the mice were euthanized and the tumours removed, weighed and sectioned for different analysis. No significant differences were found in tumour size, tumour weight, in the number of proliferating cells or in aromatase expression. Despite this, tumour from control mice had significantly more inflammatory cells than tumours from XN‐treated mice. Additionally, the number of blood vessels found was decreased and the number of apoptotic cells increased in XN‐treated mice tumours. In conclusion, these results show that there is a good likelihood that xanthohumol might impair tumour growth mainly during its promotion and progression. Supported by FCT (POCTI, Feder, Programa Comunitário de Apoio, and SFRH/BD/12622/2003) and IBeSa.