Human tumors are methionine dependent in vivo.
Methionine-dependence is a tumor-specific biochemical defect expressed by the inability or decreased ability of tumors to grow under the condition of methionine-depletion. Many reports have shown that methionine-dependence occurs in human tumors of all types, including fresh surgical specimens in vitro. However, in vivo determinations of methionine-dependence have thus far been made only in rodent malignant tumors using methionine-deficient diets. We report here for the first time that human cancer xenografts in nude mice are methionine-dependent and when fed a methionine-free diet tumor growth is greatly inhibited. The body weight of mice on the methionine-free diet was found to be maintainable by once-per-week administration of methionine. The data presented here suggest that methionine-dependence can be an important target for human cancer treatment.
Hoshiya
Y
Y
Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan.
Guo
H
H
Kubota
T
T
Inada
T
T
Asanuma
F
F
Yamada
Y
Y
Koh
J
J
Kitajima
M
M
Hoffman
R M
RM
D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D002455:Cell Division; D002460:Cell Line; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008715:Methionine / Q000172:deficiency / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008819:Mice, Nude; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
D008715:Methionine