Study Suggests Link Between Tocotrienol and Inhibition of Cancer Cell Proliferation
The researchers also showed that tocotrienols inhibited the proliferation of and formation of tubes by bovine aortic endothelial cells, with delta-tocotrienol having the greatest effect.
15/03/06 According to researchers in Japan, “Tocotrienols, vitamin E compounds that have an unsaturated side chain with three double bonds, selectively inhibited the activity of mammalian DNA polymerase lambda (pol lambda) in vitro. Polymerases are involved in cellular DNA synthesis during cell replication.”
The researchers also showed that tocotrienols inhibited the proliferation of and formation of tubes by bovine aortic endothelial cells, with delta-tocotrienol having the greatest effect. “The isomer’s structure might be an important factor in the inhibition of pol lambda,” suggested Y. Mizushina and colleagues at the Kobe Gakuin University.
The study published in a recent issue of Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communication, 2006 (339), 949-955 suggests that tocotrienols may act as potent anti-cancer agents by inhibiting pol lambda and angiogenesis.
What is interesting is that the regular tocopherols (alpha, beta, gamma and delta-tocopherol) do not influence the activities of mammalian polymerase and angiogenesis at all, suggesting that the three double bonds in the unsaturated side chain of tocotrienols play an important factor in the inhibition of polymerase lambda.
“Since angiogenesis is essential for tumour growth, its strong inhibition by tocotrienols but not tocopherols, could very well provide us with a safe dietary means to prevent a cancer from becoming metastatic,” says WH Leong, Vice President for Carotech Inc, the largest producer of Tocomin® full spectrum palm tocotrienol complex in the world.
