%0 Journal Article
%T American ginseng suppresses Western diet-promoted tumorigenesis in model of inflammation-associated colon cancer: role of EGFR
%A Urszula Dougherty
%A Reba Mustafi
%A Yunwei Wang
%A Mark W Musch
%A Chong-Zhi Wang
%A Vani J Konda
%A Anirudh Kulkarni
%A John Hart
%A Glyn Dawson
%A Karen E Kim
%A Chun-Su Yuan
%A Eugene B Chang
%A Marc Bissonnette
%J BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1472-6882-11-111
%X Mice were initiated with azoxymethane (AOM) and, two weeks later fed a Western diet (WD, 20% fat) alone, or WD supplemented with 250-ppm ginseng. After 1 wk, mice received 2.5% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) for 5 days and were sacrificed 12 wks after AOM. Tumors were harvested and cell proliferation measured by Ki67 staining and apoptosis by TUNEL assay. Levels of EGF-related signaling molecules and apoptosis regulators were determined by Western blotting. Anti-tumor effects of intraperitoneal compound K were examined using a tumor xenograft model and compound K absorption measured following oral ginseng gavage by UPLC-mass spectrometry. Effects of dietary ginseng on microbial diversity were measured by analysis of bacterial 16S rRNA.Ginseng significantly inhibited colonic inflammation and tumorigenesis and concomitantly reduced proliferation and increased apoptosis. The EGFR cascade was up-regulated in colonic tumors and ginseng significantly reduced EGFR and ErbB2 activation and Cox-2 expression. Dietary ginseng altered colonic microbial diversity, and bacterial suppression with metronidazole reduced serum compound K following ginseng gavage. Furthermore, compound K significantly inhibited tumor xenograft growth.Ginseng inhibited colonic inflammation and tumorigenesis promoted by Western diet. We speculate that the ginseng metabolite compound K contributes to the chemopreventive effects of this agent in colonic tumorigenesis.Colon cancer arises from activating mutations in oncogenes and inactivating mutations in tumor suppressor genes. While hereditary forms of this disease arise from germline mutations such as loss of function mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (apc) gene, most colon cancers are sporadic and involve somatic mutations in apc or other genes. Environmental especially dietary factors are believed to contribute substantially to the risk of colon cancer development [1,2]. In this regard Western diets that are rich in Western style fats have bee
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/11/111