Habib N A, Wood C B, Apostolov K, Barker W, Hershman M J, Aslam M, Heinemann D, Fermor B, Williamson R C, Jenkins W E
University Department of Surgery, Bristol Royal Infirmary, UK.
Br J Cancer. 1987 Oct;56(4):455-8. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1987.223.
Decreased membrane rigidity is one of the characteristics of malignant cells, resulting in part from the desaturation of stearic acid into oleic acid. In this study we investigated the influence of stearic acid on tumour cell inhibition in vitro and tumour development in vivo. Stearic acid inhibited the colony-forming ability of 4 out of 5 rat and two human tumour continuous cell lines in vitro. In contrast, the colony-forming ability of rat fibroblasts was not inhibited and that of human foetal lung fibroblasts was inhibited at a higher dose than that required to inhibit human tumour cell lines. Using a model of rat mammary carcinoma induced by nitroso-methyl urea (NMU) the subcutaneous injection of stearic acid at weekly intervals prevented tumour development in 5 to 10 rats. Using iodostearic acid twice weekly, 11 of 19 rats were alive and tumour free at week 22 whilst all of 14 animals injected with NMU alone had died of tumour by the 16th week. The ratio of stearic to oleic acids in erythrocyte membranes was significantly reduced in the tumour-bearing rats, but was normal in tumour-free animals treated with stearic or iodostearic acid. These preliminary data indicate that stearic acid inhibits tumour development in rats.
膜刚性降低是恶性细胞的特征之一，部分原因是硬脂酸去饱和生成油酸。在本研究中，我们调查了硬脂酸对体外肿瘤细胞抑制和体内肿瘤发展的影响。硬脂酸在体外抑制了5种大鼠肿瘤连续细胞系中的4种以及两种人类肿瘤连续细胞系的集落形成能力。相比之下，大鼠成纤维细胞的集落形成能力未受抑制，而人胚肺成纤维细胞的集落形成能力在高于抑制人类肿瘤细胞系所需的剂量下受到抑制。使用亚硝基甲基脲（NMU）诱导的大鼠乳腺癌模型，每周皮下注射硬脂酸可防止5至10只大鼠发生肿瘤。每周两次使用碘硬脂酸，在第22周时，19只大鼠中有11只存活且无肿瘤，而仅注射NMU的14只动物在第16周时均死于肿瘤。荷瘤大鼠红细胞膜中硬脂酸与油酸的比例显著降低，但在用硬脂酸或碘硬脂酸处理的无肿瘤动物中该比例正常。这些初步数据表明硬脂酸可抑制大鼠肿瘤的发展。
