sarcophytol-a and Body-Weight

The inhibitory effect of sarcophytol A, a cembrane-type diterpene isolated from a marine soft coral, Sarcophyton glaucum, on development of spontaneous hepatomas was investigated in C3H/HeNCrj mice. A total of 80 mice were divided equally into two groups. The experimental and control groups were given basal diets with and without 0.01% sarcophytol A, respectively. At week 65 of the experiment, mice were examined for hepatomas. The percentages of hepatoma-bearing mice of the subgroup with three or more tumors and the tumor diameters of the group treated with sarcophytol A were smaller than those of the control group. Ridit analysis revealed that these differences were statistically significant. The body weight gain, and the food intake were not significantly different between these two groups. Analysis of blood serum revealed that feeding the diet containing 0.01% sarcophytol A for 65 weeks did not show any adverse effects. These results suggest that sarcophytol A inhibits the development of spontaneous hepatomas without toxicity, and should be considered as a possible cancer chemopreventive agent for hepatomas in humans.

Topics: Alanine Transaminase; Animals; Antineoplastic Agents; Bilirubin; Body Weight; Diterpenes; gamma-Glutamyltransferase; Liver Neoplasms, Experimental; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred C3H; Retinol-Binding Proteins; Serum Albumin

An antitumorigenic effect of sarcophytol A (SaA), a simple monohydroxycembratetraene isolated from a marine soft coral Sarcophyton glaucum, was investigated in rat colon carcinogenesis. Three groups (26 rats each) of female CD-Fischer rats given an intrarectal dose of 2 mg of N-methyl-N-nitrosourea 3 times weekly for Wk 1 to 3 were fed standard laboratory chow in the control group or the chow containing 0.01% SaA from Wk 1 or from Wk 4 in experimental groups. The body weight gain and the food intake were not different among all 3 groups, and SaA intake was similar in both experimental groups at a dosage of 6.18 and 6.14 mg/kg of body weight/day at Wk 5 and 3.87 and 3.90 mg/kg of body weight/day at Wk 25. At autopsy at Wk 26, the incidence of large bowel tumors was found to be significantly lower and the mean number of tumors per tumor-bearing rat to be insignificantly smaller in experimental groups than in the control group: 50% and 58% versus 85%, 1.8 and 1.8 versus 2.0. The tumors in both experimental groups were generally smaller. All the tumors except two signet ring cell carcinomas were well-differentiated adenocarcinomas. Induction of ornithine decarboxylase activity, a marker of tumor promotion, in the large bowel mucosa of rats which were fed the SaA chow for 1 wk, then received an intrarectal dose of 12, 6, or 1.2 mumol of deoxycholate, a tumor promoter in large bowel carcinogenesis, and were killed 4 h later was significantly lower than in control rats. Thus, it was concluded that SaA inhibited the development of large bowel cancer, probably through an antipromoting mechanism.

Topics: Animals; Antineoplastic Agents; Body Weight; Colonic Neoplasms; Diterpenes; Female; Methylnitrosourea; Mollusca; Rats; Rats, Inbred F344; Reference Values