Brewers' rice induces apoptosis in azoxymethane-induced colon carcinogenesis in rats via suppression of cell proliferation and the Wnt signaling pathway Tan Bee Ling, NorhaizanMohd Esa, HeshuSulaiman Rahman, Hazilawati Hamzah andRoselina Karim
Abstract Background Brewers' rice is locally known as temukut, is a byproduct of the rice milling process, and consists of broken rice, rice bran, and rice germ. Unlike rice bran, the health benefit of brewers' rice has yet to be fully studied. Our present study aimed to identify the chemopreventive potential of brewers' rice with colonic tumor formation and to examine further the mechanistic action of brewers' rice during colon carcinogenesis.
Methods Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups: (G1) normal; (G2) azoxymethane (AOM) alone; and (G3), (G4), and (G5), which were AOM fed with 10%, 20%, and 40% (w/w) of brewers' rice, respectively. Rats in group 2 to 5 were injected intraperitoneally with AOM (15 mg/kg body weight) once weekly for two weeks. Colon tumor incidence and multiplicity was assessed by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. The expression of beta-catenin, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and Ki-67 was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining. The apoptosis-inducing activity was analyzed using a TUNEL assay. The data were analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with P-value < 0.05 was considered significant.
Results Overall analyses revealed that brewers' rice reduced colon tumor incidence and multiplicity. The results from immunohistochemistry analysis also showed that brewers' rice decreased the expression of beta-catenin, COX-2, and Ki-67 in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, TUNEL analysis demonstrated that administration of brewers' rice in AOM-induced rat colorectal cancer resulted in a dose-dependent increase in cell apoptosis.
Conclusions Taken together, our data suggested that brewers' rice can inhibit cell proliferation, induce apoptosis, and suppress COX-2 and beta-catenin expression via the Wnt signaling pathway and holds great promise in the field of chemoprevention as a dietary agent.
Germinated brown rice (GBR) reduces the incidence of aberrant crypt foci with the involvement of β-catenin and COX-2 in azoxymethane-induced colon cancer in rats
Abstract Chemoprevention has become an important area in cancer research due to the failure of current therapeutic modalities. Epidemiological and preclinical studies have demonstrated that nutrition plays a vital role in the etiology of cancer. This study was conducted to determine the chemopreventive effects of germinated brown rice (GBR) in rats induced with colon cancer. GBR is brown rice that has been claimed to be richer in nutrients compared to the common white rice. The male Sprague Dawley rats (6 weeks of age) were randomly divided into 5 groups: (G1) positive control (with colon cancer, unfed with GBR), (G2) fed with 2.5 g/kg of GBR (GBR (g)/weight of rat (kg)), (G3) fed with 5 g/kg of GBR, (G4) fed with 10 g/kg of GBR and (G5) negative control (without colon cancer, unfed with GBR). GBR was administered orally once daily via gavage after injection of 15 mg/kg of body weight of azoxymethane (AOM) once a week for two weeks, intraperitonially. After 8 weeks of treatment, animals were sacrificed and colons were removed. Colonic aberrant crypt foci (ACF) were evaluated histopathologically. Total number of ACF and AC, and multicrypt of ACF, and the expression of β-catenin and COX-2 reduced significantly (p < 0.05) in all the groups treated with GBR (G2, G3 and G4) compared to the control group (G1). Spearman rank correlation test showed significant positive linear relationship between total β-catenin and COX-2 score (Spearman's rho = 0.616, p = 0.0001). It is demonstrated that GBR inhibits the development of total number of ACF and AC, and multicrypt of ACF, reduces the expression of β-catenin and COX-2, and thus can be a promising dietary supplement in prevention of colon cancer.......This study indicates that GBR possesses good chemopreventive effects, more likely due to the nutritional components that are increasing in content following the process of germination such as phytic acid (IP6), ferulic acid, inositol and dietary fiber [4]. It has been reported that inositol hexaphosphate (IP6) reduced the carcinogen-induced large bowel cancer and inhibited growth of transplanted tumors [43]. However, the mechanism by which IP6 exerts chemopreventive is not completely understood