Lee Swanson Research Update

Tocotrienols Show Promise Against Cancer Growth

September 2007

Tocotrienol, the less well-known form of vitamin E, could prevent the formation of new blood vessels, and therefore holds promise against a range of diseases, a new study suggests.

Japanese researchers, led by Kiyotaka Nakagawa from Tohoku University, looked at the ability of tocotrienol to prevent angiogenesis, associated with tumor growth, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetic retinopathy.

"Our findings suggest that tocotrienol has potential as a therapeutic dietary supplement for preventing angiogenic disorders, and therefore future clinical study will be required to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tocotrienol," wrote the researchers in the Journal of Nutrition.

The researchers performed preliminary in vitro studies and found that tocotrienol was effective at inhibiting angiogenesis in both bovine aortic endothelial cells and human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

Nakagawa and coworkers therefore extended their investigation to test the ability of tocotrienol to suppress angiogenesis in vivo using the mouse dorsal air sac (DAS) assay and the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay.

The former, on exposure to a dietary supplementation of 10 mg tocotrienol-rich oil per day (equivalent to 4.4 mg tocotrienol per day) suppressed angiogenesis by 44%, compared to control.

In the chick embryo assay, tocotrienol was found to inhibit new blood vessel formation, while simultaneously increasing the area containing no blood vessels by 36% to 50%.

An in vitro mechanistic study indicated that the tocotrienol influenced fibroblast growth, cells that provide the structural framework for many tissues, by changing cell signaling as well as inducing programmed cell death in endothelial cells.

Journal of Nutrition 137:1938-1943, 2007

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