Effect of carrot feeding to APC^Min mouse on intestinal tumours

Abstract

Multiple studies show that diets containing carrot are associated with a reduced risk of a range of cancers such as bladder cancer (1) . Carrots contain several types of bioactive compounds with potentially beneficial effects, including polyacetylenes such as falcarinol, which for example are responsible for the cytotoxic effects of carrot juice on leukaemia cell cultures (2) . Mice with the APC Min mutation develop multiple polyps in both the small and the large intestine by age around three months and have been used extensively as a model to investigate chemopreventive effects of different food constituents (3) . The aim of this study was to investigate if feeding diet containing carrot could reduce development of intestinal tumours in APC Min mice. Wild-type C57BL/6J dams were fed pellets either made from 20 % blanched freeze dried carrots and 80 % powdered standard RM3 diet, or standard control diet, and mated with APC Min males. Pups were raised on the same diets as their mothers, genotyped at 5 weeks and APC Min animals were killed at 12 weeks of age. The mice were dissected, and the tumour size and number measured. Experiments were carried out under project license PPL60/4294, granted to Newcastle University by the UK Home Office. Carrot feeding significantly reduced the tumour number (P = 0.021) compared with control. The average tumour size showed a strong trend for a reduction compared with the control feeding, even though the differences were not significant (P = 0.057).The results show that this mouse model responds well to the cancer-protective constituents of carrots and thus is suitable for further investigations of the mechanisms involved. The APC Min mouse model will be used to determine whether the carrots primarily affect tumour initiation or tumour growth. In other studies each of the bioactive polyacetylenes found in carrots will be isolated to assess their roles in tumour reduction, and effects of carrot consumption on human volunteers will be investigated.

Twenty years of research in the Human Nutrition Research Centre, Newcastle University, 1994–2014

“…The research carried out to date has shown that feeding freeze‐dried carrot to APC Min mice (which have a mutation at codon 850 in the Apc gene and so develop intestinal tumours spontaneously) substantially and significantly reduced tumour number and tumour volume (Saleh et al . ). Research is currently ongoing to determine which compounds are involved and if the effect can be extended to humans.…”

Pathways Affected by Falcarinol-Type Polyacetylenes and Implications for Their Anti-Inflammatory Function and Potential in Cancer Chemoprevention

“…More detailed studies were performed using animal models. The consumption of carrot powder reduced the growth of intestinal tumours in an Apc Min/+ mouse colon cancer model [ 115 , 116 ]. A study examined colon preneoplastic lesions in AOM-treated rats that were fed carrots (10% freeze-dried carrot with a natural concentration of FaOH at 35 µg/g), FaOH (purified FaOH mixed at 3.5 µg/g in food) or a control for 18 weeks.…”

Effects of carrot powder intake after weaning on tumours in APCMin mice

“…Mice with the APC Min mutation are a common model of cancer in the small intestine and colon, to study the role of diet on tumours ( 2 ) . A previous study showed a substantial reduction in number of visible tumours when mice were fed carrot-supplemented diet throughout their lifetime (including in utero) ( 3 ) . The main aim of the study was to investigate if the active substances in carrot would be able to reduce the growth of intestinal tumours in APC Min mice when the carrot treatment was started only after the fifth week (after weaning).…”