Antioxidant intervention of smoking-induced lung tumor by vitamin E.

 

Smoking, including second-hand smoking, poses a serious threat to public health. Smoke induced-lung tumor has become one of the malignancies with highest incidence and mortality worldwide. Therefore, increasing attention has been paid to searching for effective approaches to the prevention and treatment of smoke-induced lung tumor, including the use of antioxidants.

Although the Beta-Carotene Tumor Prevention Study Group demonstrated that beta-carotene may actually promote the development of lung tumor in male smokers rather than prevent the disease, the majority of epidemiological findings support the preventive effects of antioxidants, including quercetin and vitamin E, on smoke-induced lung tumor. Moreover, in vitro studies have shown that quercetin and vitamin E can prevent the proliferation, invasion, and metastasis of tumor cells and promote the disintegration of lung tumor cells. However, no animal studies have addressed the potential of quercetin and vitamin E for intervening in the development of smoke-induced lung tumor.

This study attempted to test the hypothesis that quercetin and vitamin E can prevent lung tumor induced by tobacco smoke using an intervention model of smoke-induced lung tumor in Swiss mice. Surprisingly, although epidemiological and in vitro studies suggested that quercetin has preventive effects on lung tumor, no in vivo preventive effects were observed in this model of smoke-induced lung tumor. However, the study demonstrated that vitamin E significantly decreased the carcinogenic potential of tobacco smoke, and significantly reduced tobacco smoke-induced DNA damage and cell disintegration. These results may be helpful in future studies aimed at the chemoprevention of tobacco smoke-induced lung tumor.

 

(SOURCE) BMC Cancer 2008, 8:383.

 

A good source of Vitamin E is MDR Longevit-E.