Abstract
Esophageal cancer is a common malignant tumor occurring in human esophageal epithelial tissue. The primary purpose of this paper was to define the effects of β-carotene and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, alone and in combination, on cell proliferation, cell cycle and apoptosis of human esophageal cancer EC9706 cells. Treatment with different concentrations of β-carotene and/or 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3. MTT assay showed that β-carotene and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 significantly inhibited proliferation of EC9706 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Further studies also demonstrated that β-carotene alone or 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 alone caused a marked increase on the induction of apoptosis in EC9706 cells. The percentage of G0/G1-phase cells significantly increased on addition of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 alone, but there were no significant changes with β-carotene alone. These two agents in combination synergistically inhibited cell growth and induced apoptosis. Therefore, our results indicate that β-carotene and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 in combination may provide a novel strategy for preventing and treating esophageal cancer.
Highlights
Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer and the sixth most common cause of death from cancer worldwide
Further studies demonstrated that β-carotene alone or 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 alone caused a marked increase on the induction of apoptosis in EC9706 cells
The results illustrated that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 inhibited significantly proliferation of EC9706 cells in a concentration- and time-dependent manner
Summary
Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer and the sixth most common cause of death from cancer worldwide. The age-standardized (World) incidence rate of esophageal cancer in 2008 was 7.0/100,000, which represented 3.8% of all new cancer cases, and the age-standardized (World) mortality rate was 5.8/100,000, which represented 5.4% of all cancer deaths (Ferlay et al, 2010). Incidence of esophageal cancer varies considerably according to geographic location It is more common in northern China, northern Iran, and southern republics of the former Soviet Union, and is less common in Japan, Great Britain, Europe and Canada. People thought β-carotene play anti-cancer role through vitamin A as a precursor of it in the past, but some studies have observed that a high dietary intake of β-carotene was negatively correlated with lung cancer, while high retinol intake couldn’t reduce the risk of lung cancer (Kvale et al, 1983). Β-carotene may be an independent protective factors of cancer, its anti-cancer mechanism was enhanced immunity, inhibiting cancer gene expression, such as bcl-2, inhibiting tumor cell proliferation, interfering with DNA metabolism in cancer cells, interfering with the cell cycle, etc (Woods et al, 1999; Palozza et al, 2002)
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