Nishino H, Tokuda H, Murakoshi M, Satomi Y, Masuda M, Onozuka M, Yamaguchi S, Takayasu J, Tsuruta J, Okuda M, Khachik F, Narisawa T, Takasuka N, Yano M
Department of Biochemistry, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan.
Biofactors. 2000;13(1-4):89-94. doi: 10.1002/biof.5520130115.
Various natural carotenoids were proven to have anticarcinogenic activity. Epidemiological investigations have shown that cancer risk is inversely related to the consumption of green and yellow vegetables and fruits. Since beta-carotene is present in abundance in these vegetables and fruits, it has been investigated extensively as possible cancer preventive agent. However, various carotenoids which co-exist with beta-carotene in vegetables and fruits also have anti-carcinogenic activity. And some of them, such as alpha-carotene, showed higher potency than beta-carotene to suppress experimental carcinogenesis. Thus, we have carried out more extensive studies on cancer preventive activities of natural carotenoids in foods; i.e., lutein, lycopene, zeaxanthin and beta-cryptoxanthin. Analysis of the action mechanism of these natural carotenoids is now in progress, and some interesting results have already obtained; for example, beta-cryptoxanthin was suggested to stimulate the expression of RB gene, an anti-oncogene, and p73 gene, which is known as one of the p53-related genes. Based on these results, multi-carotenoids (mixture of natural carotenoids) seems to be of interest to evaluate its usefulness for practice in human cancer prevention.
各种天然类胡萝卜素已被证明具有抗癌活性。流行病学调查表明，癌症风险与绿色和黄色蔬菜及水果的摄入量呈负相关。由于β-胡萝卜素在这些蔬菜和水果中含量丰富，因此它作为一种可能的癌症预防剂受到了广泛研究。然而，与β-胡萝卜素共存于蔬菜和水果中的各种类胡萝卜素也具有抗癌活性。其中一些，如α-胡萝卜素，在抑制实验性致癌方面表现出比β-胡萝卜素更高的效力。因此，我们对食物中天然类胡萝卜素的防癌活性进行了更广泛的研究，即叶黄素、番茄红素、玉米黄质和β-隐黄质。目前正在对这些天然类胡萝卜素的作用机制进行分析，并且已经取得了一些有趣的结果；例如，有人提出β-隐黄质可刺激抑癌基因RB基因以及已知为p53相关基因之一的p73基因的表达。基于这些结果，多类胡萝卜素（天然类胡萝卜素的混合物）似乎对于评估其在人类癌症预防实践中的有用性具有重要意义。
