Whole almonds and almond fractions reduce aberrant crypt foci in a rat model of colon carcinogenesis
Introduction
Colon cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths for both men and women in the US [1]. Population studies suggest that 90% of large bowel cancer deaths are diet-related and that high saturated fat and red meat intake increases colon cancer risk [2], [3], [4]. From these and other data, foods containing a significant percentage of calories from fat have been labeled as ‘unhealthy’. However, a growing number of studies have suggested that increased consumption of almonds and other nuts, high fat foods, in fact confer health benefits such as declines in heart disease [5], [6], [7], [8]. Moreover, increasing evidence suggests that the linkage between fat and colon cancer in particular [9], [10] as well as other cancers and diseases in general is complex. Specifically, while high fat (40% of energy) intake does produce a high level of colon cancer promotion, this relationship very much depends on the type of dietary fat [11], [12]. The specific effects of nuts with respect to colon cancer remain ill-defined and there appear to be no published animal studies that have directly examined the effect of almond or other nut consumption on colon cancer-associated endpoints. In response, we have undertaken a study to examine the effects of almond consumption on colon cancer markers in a chemically-induced animal model of colon carcinogenesis.
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Animals
Male Fischer 344 rats, 5 weeks after birth, were purchased from Simonsen Laboratories (Gilroy, CA). They were housed individually with free access to chow for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, animals were randomized into diet groups (N=10/group) and the assigned experimental diets were substituted for chow and fed for 26 weeks. Lighting in the room was maintained on a reverse 12 h (light 17:00–05:00 h) cycle. All animal procedures were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of the Western
Results
The final body weight and organ weights (liver and colon) of the various diet groups are shown in Table 2. All the diet groups readily consumed the diets offered and gained weight at similar rates (data not shown). There were modest but statistically significant diet effects on body weight (P<0.05) and liver weight (P<0.04) but the diet effect on colon weight did not achieve statistical significance. In the case of body weight, animals fed almond oil-containing diets were the heaviest and the
Discussion
The current study found that rats fed isocaloric, macronutrient-matched high fat, low fiber diets formulated using whole almonds, almond meal or almond oil showed large and statistically significant dietary treatment-related declines in ACF as well as colonic cell turnover. While the whole almond group showed statistically significant effects irregardless of the control group comparison employed, diets formulated with almond fractions showed statistically significant declines in either ACF
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Drs B. Schneeman and W. Yokoyama for their helpful suggestions regarding the manuscript. The authors would further like to thank Dr Yokoyama and his coworkers for their advice and assistance with the animal housing and diet-related matters. This research was supported by a grant from the Almond Board of California.
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