Recent progress in carotenoid research on human diseases.

Abstract

Large scale intervention studies were conducted to demonstrate the preventive effect of β-carotene on the occurrence of lung cancer among high risk persons such as aged heavy smokers and asbestos workers. Although large scale intervention studies failed to demonstrate the preventive effect of carotene, an inverse relationship between baseline carotenoid levels and the subsequent onset of cancers encouraged further investigations on the biophysical nature and the metabolism of β-carotene and other carotenoids including their isomers and metabolites. The influence of carotenoids has been investigated on cell differentiation, immunological function, gene expression, sunburn, and H. pylori infection, in terms of anti-carcinogenesis.