A new study emphasizes the importance to gut health of eating plenty of vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, and kale.
\nselection of greens
\nEating brassicas such as collards, kale, and broccoli may protect against colon cancer.
\nResearchers from the Francis Crick Institute in London, United Kingdom, \nfound that keeping mice on a diet rich in a compound known as \nindole-3-carbinol (I3C) \u2014 which comes from such vegetables \u2014 prevented \nthe animals\u2019 intestines from becoming inflamed and developing colon \ncancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They report the study in a paper now published in the journal Immunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSeeing the profound effect,\u201d says study senior author Dr. Brigitta \nStockinger, a group leader at the Francis Crick Institute, \u201cof diet on \ngut inflammation and colon cancer was very striking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our digestive system produces I3C when we eat vegetables from a \u201clarge and diverse group\u201d of plants known as brassicas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brassicas include, but are not limited to: broccoli, cabbage, \ncollards, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, swede, turnip, \nbok choi, and mizuna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colon cancer typically starts as a growth, or polyp, in the lining of\n the colon or large intestine. It can take many years for the cancer to \ndevelop from a polyp and not all polyps become cancerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cancer of the colon or rectum is the third most commonly diagnosed in\n both women and men in the United States, not counting skin cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimate that there will be 97,220 new cases of diagnosed colon cancer in the U.S. in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Concrete evidence\u2019 of hidden mechanism
\nDespite a lot of evidence about the benefits to our digestive system of a\n diet rich in vegetables, much of the underlying cell biology remains \nunknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new findings are the first to give \u201cconcrete evidence\u201d of how \ndietary I3C \u2014 through its effect on a cell protein known as aryl \nhydrocarbon receptor (AhR) \u2014 protects the gut from inflammation and \ncancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AhR has several roles, and for it to work properly, it has to be \nactivated by a compound that binds to it uniquely. I3C is such a \ncompound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Low vitamin D levels may raise bowel cancer risk
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\nOne of AhR\u2019s jobs in the gut is to pick up environmental signals and \npass them on to immune cells and other cells in the lining. These \nsignals are important for protecting the digestive tract from \ninflammation-promoting signals that come from the \u201ctrillions of \nbacteria\u201d that live in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another important role that AhR plays is helping stem cells convert \ninto specialized gut lining cells that produce protective mucus and help\n extract nutrients from food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When AhR is absent or does not work properly, the stem cells do not \nconvert into working cells in the gut lining but \u201cdivide \nuncontrollably.\u201d Uncontrolled cell division may lead to abnormal growths\n that can become malignant, or cancerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Importance of \u2018plant matter\u2019 in diet
\nDr. Stockinger and her colleagues saw that normal laboratory mice that \nate \u201cpurified control diets\u201d developed colon tumors within 10 weeks, \nwhile those that ate standard \u201cchow\u201d containing grains and other \ningredients did not develop any.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Purified control diets are tightly controlled to include precise \namounts of protein, fat, carbohydrate, fiber, minerals, and vitamins. \nThey are designed to exactly match nutritional requirements without \nincluding germs, allergens, and other substances that might introduce \nspurious variables in experiments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new study suggests that because purified control diets contain \nless plant matter, they have fewer compounds that activate AhR, compared\n with standard chow diets or diets enriched with I3C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Chris Schiering, of Imperial College London, remarks that \u201ceven \nwithout genetic risk factors,\u201d it would seem that \u201ca diet devoid of \nvegetable matter can lead to colon cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Significantly fewer tumors\u2019
\nThe researchers used mice and organoids, or \u201cmini guts,\u201d grown from \nmouse stem cells, in their experiments. These revealed that the ability \nof intestinal epithelial cells to replenish themselves and repair the \ngut lining after infection or chemical damage was \u201cprofoundly \ninfluenced\u201d by AhR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team also found that genetically engineered mice whose intestinal\n epithelial cells had no AhR \u2014 or could not activate the protein \u2014 \nfailed to control an infection from a gut bacterium called Citrobacter \nrodentium. The animals developed gut inflammation and then colon cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHowever, when we fed them a diet enriched with I3C, they did not \ndevelop inflammation or cancer,\u201d remarks first author Dr. Amina Metidji,\n also of the Francis Crick Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, notes Dr. Metidji, when they switched mice that were \nalready developing colon cancer to a diet rich in I3C, they found that \nthose animals developed \u201csignificantly fewer tumors\u201d and that those \ntumors were less likely to be malignant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In discussing their results, the researchers raise the issue of \nwhether it is the high fat content or the low consumption of vegetables \nin high-fat diets that explains the link to colon cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scientists now expect to continue the work on I3C and AhR with \norganoids grown from human gut tissue extracted in biopsies. Eventually,\n they expect the work to lead to human trials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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