Sigounas G, Anagnostou A, Steiner M
Division of Hematology/Oncology, East Carolina University School of Medicine, Greenville, NC 27858, USA.
Nutr Cancer. 1997;28(1):30-5. doi: 10.1080/01635589709514549.
Vitamin E, best known as a potent antioxidant, has been shown to have other functions that are not mediated by this activity. Recent reports have suggested that vitamin E may inhibit smooth muscle cell and also cancer cell growth. We have studied the effect of dl-alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) on a series of well-established cancer cell lines that included two erythroleukemia cell lines and a hormone-responsive breast and prostate cancer cell line. Cell proliferation was examined in these cell lines, which were maintained at optimal growth conditions. A dose-dependent inhibition of cell growth was found in all cell lines examined, with the MCF-7 breast and CRL-1740 prostate cancer cell lines showing potent suppression of growth at 0.1 mM vitamin E, whereas the erythroleukemia cell lines, HEL and OCIM-1, responded only at > 0.25 mM vitamin E with inhibition of proliferation. Studies of [3H]thymidine incorporation showed that vitamin E supplementation reduced DNA synthesis in all cell lines. Analysis of high-molecular-weight DNA revealed extensive fragmentation, indicating apoptosis of all cell lines supplemented with vitamin E. Our studies thus give evidence of a general inhibition of cell proliferation by dl-alpha-tocopherol, with breast and prostate cancer cells distinctly more sensitive than erythroleukemia cells.
维生素E作为一种强效抗氧化剂最为人所知，但其已被证明具有其他并非由该活性介导的功能。最近的报道表明，维生素E可能抑制平滑肌细胞以及癌细胞的生长。我们研究了消旋-α-生育酚（维生素E）对一系列成熟癌细胞系的影响，这些细胞系包括两种红白血病细胞系以及一种激素反应性乳腺癌和前列腺癌细胞系。在维持于最佳生长条件的这些细胞系中检测细胞增殖情况。在所检测的所有细胞系中均发现了剂量依赖性的细胞生长抑制，其中MCF-7乳腺癌细胞系和CRL-1740前列腺癌细胞系在0.1 mM维生素E时显示出对生长的强力抑制，而红白血病细胞系HEL和OCIM-1仅在维生素E浓度> 0.25 mM时才出现增殖抑制。[3H]胸腺嘧啶核苷掺入研究表明，补充维生素E会降低所有细胞系中的DNA合成。对高分子量DNA的分析显示出广泛的片段化，表明补充维生素E的所有细胞系均发生了凋亡。因此，我们的研究证明消旋-α-生育酚对细胞增殖具有普遍抑制作用，其中乳腺癌和前列腺癌细胞比红白血病细胞明显更敏感。
