title: Arachidonic and docosahexaenoic acids reduce the growth of A549 human lung-tumor cells increasing lipid peroxidation and PPARs.
abstract: Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) play an important role in both induction and prevention of carcinogenic process. It is well known that several types of neoplastic cells show decreased total PUFA content, contributing to their resistance to chemotherapy and lipid peroxidation. In the light of this, human lung cancer A549 cells, with low PUFA content, were exposed to arachidonic or docosahexaenoic acid to investigate the effect of n-6 and n-3 PUFAs on growth and elucidate underlying mechanisms. The bulk of the results showed that both n-6 PUFAs and n-3 PUFAs decrease human lung-tumor cell growth in a concentration-dependent manner, inducing cell death mainly evident at 100microM concentration. The mechanism underlying the antiproliferative effect of n-6 and n-3 PUFAs appeared to be the same, involving changes in fatty acid composition of biomembranes, production of cytostatic aldehydes derived from lipid peroxidation and able to affect DNA-binding activity of AP-1, and induction of PPAR. From these results it may be hypothesized that n-6 PUFAs, like n-3 PUFAs, are able to inhibit tumor growth.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina ed Oncologia Sperimentale, University of Turin, Corso Raffaello 30, 10125 Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Trombetta
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maggiora
authors.forename: Germana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Martinasso
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cotogni
authors.forename: Rosa A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Canuto
authors.forename: Giuliana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Muzio
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D016718:Arachidonic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D004281:Docosahexaenoic Acids / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D015227:Lipid Peroxidation / Q000187:drug effects*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D047492:Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors / Q000378:metabolism*; D013997:Time Factors; D018808:Transcription Factor AP-1 / Q000378:metabolism; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D005227:Fatty Acids; D047492:Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors; D018808:Transcription Factor AP-1; D004281:Docosahexaenoic Acids; D016718:Arachidonic Acid