coenzyme-q10 and Colonic-Neoplasms

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is known to be a compound with mitochondrial bioenergetic functions and antioxidant activity. In this study, we evaluated the effect of CoQ10 on the formation of aberrant crypt foci (ACF) induced by 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH), DMH-induced leukocytic DNA damage and gene expression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) by real-time PCR in colonic mucosa of male SD rats. The animals were divided into three groups and fed a casein-based high-fat and low fiber diet (100 g lard+20 g cellulose/kg diet) with or without CoQ10 (0.4 mg in soybean oil/kg BW/d, i.p.). One week after beginning the diets, the rats were subjected to 6 wk of treatment with DMH (30 mg/kg/wk, s.c.) and CoQ10 treatments continued over the entirety of the experimental period (59 d). Administration of CoQ10 resulted in reduction of ACF numbers, to 20% of the carcinogen control value. CoQ10 supplementation induced an antigenotoxic effect on DMH-induced DNA damage in the blood cells. Colonic mucosa of DMH-injected rats had significantly greater COX-2 and iNOS gene expression than those of control rats, while treatment with CoQ10 induced an inhibitory effect on over-expression of COX-2 and iNOS in colon tumors. Our results provide evidence that CoQ10 has a protective effect on the process of colon carcinogenesis, suppressing the development of preneoplastic lesions, possibly by modulating COX-2 and iNOS gene expression in colonic mucosa and DNA damage in leukocytes, suggesting that CoQ10 has chemotherapeutic activity.

Topics: 1,2-Dimethylhydrazine; Analysis of Variance; Animals; Anticarcinogenic Agents; Antioxidants; Colon; Colonic Neoplasms; Cyclooxygenase 2; DNA Damage; Intestinal Mucosa; Male; Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II; Precancerous Conditions; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Ubiquinone

Effects of immunostimulation with OK432, Coenzyme Q10 (Co-Q10), or levamisole on dimethylhydrazine (DMH)-induced colonic carcinogenesis were investigated in 45 Donryu-rats. The manipulation with one of these immunopotentiators did not prevent DMH-induced colonic carcinogenesis in these rats. However, the number of tumors was significantly reduced and the incidence of invasive carcinomas decreased by immunostimulation. The treatment also reduced the number of lesions with epithelial dysplasia within the flat colonic mucosa.

Topics: 1,2-Dimethylhydrazine; Animals; Biological Products; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; Coenzymes; Colonic Neoplasms; Dimethylhydrazines; Epithelium; Intestinal Mucosa; Levamisole; Picibanil; Rats; Ubiquinone