Expression of Metabolic and Apoptotic Genes During Treatment With Chemopreventive Agents for Breast Cancer
Abstract
The effects of long-term treatment with indole-3-carbinol (I3C) and/or tamoxifen (TAM) on caspase activities in mammary glands and tumors were examined. Both controls and DMBA-pretreated rats were treated 3 doses per week, up to 52 doses, with (1) Vehicle, (2) TAM (10 microng per rat), (3) I3C (250 mg/kg) and (4) TAM+I3C, respectively. Rats were sacrificed at selected intervals for mammary glands and tumors. Colorimetric caspase assay shows that in normal mammary glands, I3C increased caspase activities earlier than TAM, and TAM+I3C treatment induced additive levels of caspase activity only at an early treatment phase. At the late treatment stage, TAM reached its greatest induction of caspase activities, and induced caspase activities 3%4-fold greater than TAM+I3C. I3C induced significantly greater caspase activities in mammary glands of tumor-free DMBA-treated rats than of tumor-bearing rats. None of the treatments significantly induced caspase activities in mammary tumors. 3,3'-diindolylmethane (DIM) failed to induce greater caspase activities in a short-term treatment than vehicle. The data suggest that I3C might be prophylactic before mammary tumors develop but it is not a promising adjuvant agent with TAM in induction of caspase activities in mammary tumors. DIM may not be the active form of I3C in the induction of apoptotic activities by a short-term treatment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA428161
Entities
People
- Danuta Malejka-giganti
- Yongjian Lu
Organizations
- University of Minnesota