Effects of dietary carotenoids on steroid hormone status in male mice lacking carotene‐15,15′‐monooxygenase (CMO‐I) or carotene‐9′,10′‐monooxygenase (CMO‐II)

Abstract

Higher serum levels of lycopene are inversely associated with prostate cancer incidence, while alterations in the gonadal hormones testosterone (T) and estradiol (E) modulate risk. Nine‐ to twelve‐week‐old male WT, CMO‐I KO and CMO‐II KO mice were fed either a control, lycopene beadlet‐ (LYC) or tomato powder‐supplemented (TP) diet for four days. Previously we reported that diet and genotype significantly interact, resulting in reduced testicular and total serum T in CMO‐I KO mice fed either TP or LYC, compared to WT mice. We hypothesized that CMO‐I KO genotype, but not CMO‐II KO genotype, would interact with LYC and/or TP to result in decreased serum E and alter testicular mRNA expression of 17β‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases (17β‐HSD) 2 & 3. Compared to WT, CMO‐I KO genotype significantly reduced the testicular mRNA expression of both 17β‐HSDs 2 and 3 (p<0.05). Serum E was unchanged, although there were trends towards significant genotype‐diet interactions in the CMO‐I KO/TP (increased; p=0.06) and CMO‐I KO/LYC (decreased; p=0.08) groups, respectively, compared to WT. No changes in serum E were seen in any CMO‐II KO mice. Further work is underway to expand upon these findings.Grant Funding Source : NIH grant PHS‐1‐RO1 CA125384.