Abstract
Onions (Allium cepa L.) are widely used in the food industry for its nutritional and aromatic properties. Our studies showed that ethyl acetate extract of onion (EEO) had potent inhibitory effects on animal fatty acid synthase (FAS), and could induce apoptosis in FAS over-expressing human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells. Furthermore, this apoptosis was accompanied by reduction of intracellular FAS activity and could be rescued by 25 mM or 50 mM exogenous palmitic acids, the final product of FAS catalyzed synthesis. These results suggest that the apoptosis induced by EEO occurs via inhibition of FAS. We also found that EEO could suppress lipid accumulation during the differentiation of 3T3-L1 adipocytes, which was also related to its inhibition of intracellular FAS activity. Since obesity is closely related to breast cancer and obese patients are at elevated risk of developing various cancers, these findings suggested that onion might be useful for preventing obesity-related malignancy.
Highlights
Allium vegetables have been employed for a long time in traditional medical practice to treat a variety of diseases
Our studies showed that ethyl acetate extract of onion (EEO) had potent inhibitory effects on animal fatty acid synthase (FAS), and could induce apoptosis in FAS over-expressing human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells
We found that EEO could suppress lipid accumulation during the differentiation of 3T3-L1 adipocytes, which was related to its inhibition of intracellular FAS activity
Summary
Allium vegetables have been employed for a long time in traditional medical practice to treat a variety of diseases. Onion (Allium cepa L.), one of the representative Allium vegetables, has been used for centuries for its pungency, flavoring value, and medicinal properties. High intakes of onions have been directly associated with the management and prevention of obesity (Lee et al, 2008). Onion extract supplementation reduced the amounts of mesenteric fat and influenced the adipokine production at a transcriptional level in the high-fat induced obese animal model (Kim et al, 2012). Onion extracts reduced blood low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol of high-fat feeding Sprague-Dawley rats (Lee et al, 2012). (commonly known as Chinese onion) in high-fat induced obese mice. The extracts significantly reduced body weight, white adipose tissue weight and adipocyte size of the treated mice compared to high-fat induced control mice (Sung et al, 2011)
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