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Novel interactions of vitamin E and estrogen in breast cancer.

Authors :
Chamras H
Barsky SH
Ardashian A
Navasartian D
Heber D
Glaspy JA
Source :
Nutrition and cancer [Nutr Cancer] 2005; Vol. 52 (1), pp. 43-8.
Publication Year :
2005

Abstract

The prevention of breast cancer through dietary modification is an active area of clinical and epidemiological research. It has been proposed that dietary supplementation of vitamin E may reduce a woman's risk of developing breast cancer. However, the exact mechanism remains unknown. alpha-Tocopherol is the most biologically active form of vitamin E. We investigated the effect of vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) on breast cancer cell growth. A dose-dependent inhibition of cell proliferation was found in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive cells showing a potent suppression of growth at 100 microM vitamin E in MCF-7 (53%) and T47D (75%) cells. Vitamin E reduced significantly the response of both cell lines to estrogen (10 nM), and cell proliferation was decreased in MCF-7 and T47D cells by 69% and 84%, respectively. No growth inhibition was observed when cells were grown in the absence of estrogen. Vitamin E altered and decreased the growth inhibition induced by tamoxifen (10 microM) in MCF-7 (33%) and T47D (54%) cells. In addition, the immunostaining of ER of MCF-7 cells was reduced by 30% in the presence of vitamin E, suggesting an effect of vitamin E on the expression of ER. This provides evidence that vitamin E may inhibit ER-positive cell growth by altering the cellular response to estrogen.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
0163-5581
Volume :
52
Issue :
1
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Nutrition and cancer
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
16091003
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327914nc5201_6