Green Tea Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Green Tea, including details on benefits, antioxidants, weight loss, diet, side effects.

Precancerous carcinogenesis of human breast epithelial cells by chronic exposure to benzo[a]pyrene.

Siriwardhana N, Wang HC

Anticancer Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Department of Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.

To understand carcinogenesis of human breast epithelial cells induced by chronic exposure to environmental pollutants, we studied biological and molecular changes in progression of cellular carcinogenesis induced by accumulated exposures to the potent environmental carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P). Increasing exposures of human breast epithelial MCF10A cells to B[a]P at picomolar concentrations resulted in cellular transformation from a noncancerous stage to precancerous substages, in which cells acquired the cancerous abilities of a reduced dependence on growth factors, anchorage-independent growth, and disruption in acini formation on reconstituted basement membranes. Using cDNA microarrays, we detected seven upregulated genes related to human cancers in B[a]P-transformed MCF10A cells. Using this model, we verified that green tea catechin significantly (P < 0.05) suppressed B[a]P-induced carcinogenesis. Our studies indicate that this cellular model may serve as a cost-efficient, in vitro system, mimicking the chronic carcinogenesis of breast cells that likely occurs in early stages of carcinogenesis in vivo, to identify agents that inhibit cellular carcinogenesis.

Published 10 April 2008 in Mol Carcinog, 47(5): 338-48.
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