title: The suppression of torulene and torularhodin treatment on the growth of PC-3 xenograft prostate tumors.
abstract: Torulene and torularhodin are two of the principal carotenoids in Sporidiobolus pararoseus and have a similar structure to that of lycopene. The present study was to elucidate the anti-cancer activity of torulene and torularhodin in vivo with lycopene as a control. Nude mice were orally supplemented every day with a low or high dose [9 or 18 mg/kg body weight (BW)] of lycopene, torularhodin or torulene. Two weeks after the supplementation, mice were injected once with hormone-independent prostatic carcinoma PC-3 cells. When the tumor of the control group load exceeded 200 mm(3), mice were killed and the study was terminated. Compared with the controls, high-carotenoid supplementation lowered the mean number of tumors from 248.13 ± 28.74 to 50.83 ± 7.63, 70.34 ± 6.77, and 60.53 ± 6.78 mm(3) (P < 0.05, n = 8) by, respectively. Histological examination showed tumor degeneration, apoptosis and necrosis presented at the end of the experiment. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry results showed Bcl-2 expression of the control group was higher than that of the carotenoid-treated group while the expression of Bax was lower than the carotenoid-treated group. High-carotenoid supplementation also increased the mRNA expressions of caspase-3, 8 and 9 in tumor tissues. These results show that both torulene and torularhodin supplementation inhibit the growth of prostate cancer in nude mice and suggest that such an action is associated the apoptosis of tumor cells.
authors.affiliation: School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, PR China. Electronic address: amtf168168@126.com.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, PR China. Electronic address: 251405401@qq.com.
authors.forename: Yingchao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, PR China. Electronic address: 601609769@qq.com.
authors.forename: Yahui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, PR China. Electronic address: hanmei.918521@163.com.
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, PR China. Electronic address: zhangwg168@126.com.
authors.forename: Weiguo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, PR China; National Engineering Research Center for Functional Food, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, PR China. Electronic address: ruindu@163.com.
authors.forename: He
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Qian
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000818:Animals; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008819:Mice, Nude; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D002338:Carotenoids; C078922:torulene; C078923:torularhodin
keywords: Chemoprevention; PC-3 xenograft prostate tumors; Torularhodin; Torulene