Excessive Fat Diet Causes 300 Percent Increase in Tumor Cell Metastasis in Animal Models
It has been widely accepted that a healthy lifestyle leads to a lower risk of cancer; however, nobody has actually demonstrated a study that concretely shows this as it relates to tumor cell metastasis. Researchers at Purdue University used a technique to measure how increasing fat causes tumor cells to transform into cells that have all the properties that lead to metastasis. They used another imaging technique to count the number of tumor cells that were in the blood stream, something called coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering and sum frequency generation imaging. You can see two cancer cells bound to collagen fibrils before they spread to the blood in the picture above.
The researchers conducted their research on two different samples of mice, those who were fed a lean low fat diet, and those who were fed an extremely high fat diet. All of the mice had a cancerous lung implanted at the start of the experiment. The results that they found were astounding; the mice who were fed the high fat diet had a 300 percent more tumor cell metastasis relative to the other mice. The researchers have theorized that in order for a tumor cell to metastasize, it has increased metabolic demands, or their must be an excess of energy. In a high lipid diet, fat can be stored very efficiently in the lipids. The cells can use this excess energy to modify themselves appropriately for metastasis.
These modifications include what is called membrane rounding, where the plasma membranes of the cells begin to round off slightly, and something else called membrane phase separation, which have both already been proven to be key in metastasis. One researcher said, “If the cancer cells don't have excess lipids they stick together and form very tight junctions in tumors, but increasing lipids causes them to take on a rounded shape and separate from each other." Obviously, this increase in lipids provides the energy necessary to break up the tight and dense tumor cells and allow them to begin to move towards the bloodstream.
I found this article very interesting because cancer metastasis is essentially when cancer begins to kill people. If the cancer can be kept very locally, almost always the cancer is treatable to a certain extent. However, as soon as the cancer starts to rapidly metastasize the prognosis becomes much worse. With these cancerous cells in the bloodstream they can affect other essential organs very quickly, which will ultimately lead to multi-organ failure and certain death. I also found this article interesting because of the fact that high fat diets basically give the body more glucose stores than it needs which can allow cells to complete processes that they would not normally do like membrane rounding and membrane phase separation. I also thought that the results were very dramatic, a 300% difference is quite a bit. Diet is often overlooked in these situations, but it is clearly critical.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090225172639.htm
The researchers conducted their research on two different samples of mice, those who were fed a lean low fat diet, and those who were fed an extremely high fat diet. All of the mice had a cancerous lung implanted at the start of the experiment. The results that they found were astounding; the mice who were fed the high fat diet had a 300 percent more tumor cell metastasis relative to the other mice. The researchers have theorized that in order for a tumor cell to metastasize, it has increased metabolic demands, or their must be an excess of energy. In a high lipid diet, fat can be stored very efficiently in the lipids. The cells can use this excess energy to modify themselves appropriately for metastasis.
These modifications include what is called membrane rounding, where the plasma membranes of the cells begin to round off slightly, and something else called membrane phase separation, which have both already been proven to be key in metastasis. One researcher said, “If the cancer cells don't have excess lipids they stick together and form very tight junctions in tumors, but increasing lipids causes them to take on a rounded shape and separate from each other." Obviously, this increase in lipids provides the energy necessary to break up the tight and dense tumor cells and allow them to begin to move towards the bloodstream.
I found this article very interesting because cancer metastasis is essentially when cancer begins to kill people. If the cancer can be kept very locally, almost always the cancer is treatable to a certain extent. However, as soon as the cancer starts to rapidly metastasize the prognosis becomes much worse. With these cancerous cells in the bloodstream they can affect other essential organs very quickly, which will ultimately lead to multi-organ failure and certain death. I also found this article interesting because of the fact that high fat diets basically give the body more glucose stores than it needs which can allow cells to complete processes that they would not normally do like membrane rounding and membrane phase separation. I also thought that the results were very dramatic, a 300% difference is quite a bit. Diet is often overlooked in these situations, but it is clearly critical.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090225172639.htm
posted by Richard Hendrick at 11:09 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home