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Abstract
Effects of intact and processed bovine milk proteins on development of chemically induced mammary tumors in female rats were compared. AIN-93G diets were made with 20% casein (CAS), casein hydrolysate (CASH), intact whey protein (IWP), or whey protein hydrolysate (WPH). Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were fed the diets starting at Gestational Day 4. Offspring were fed the same diet. At 50 days, female offspring (44–49/group) were gavaged with sesame oil containing 80 mg/kg of the mammary carcinogen dimethylbenzanthracene (DMBA) and euthanized 62 days posttreatment. Rats fed WPH had an adenocarcinoma incidence of 17% compared to the rats fed CAS, CASH, and IWP diets (34%, 33%, and 36% respectively) (P < 0.001). Median palpable tumor latency for rats fed WPH was greater (61 days, P < 0.001) compared to CAS (44 days), CASH (42 days) and IWP (45 days). Tumor multiplicity was also lower (1.5 vs. 3.0, P < 0.05) in rats fed WPH than in CAS and CASH fed groups. Results demonstrate that hydrolytic processing of whey protein is required for this diet to be effective in reducing DMBA-induced mammary tumors. The bioactive compounds produced during whey protein processing and mechanisms underlying the anticancer effects of WPH are yet to be identified.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Julie Benson, Chris Weatherford, Cynthia Mercado, David Irby and Michele Perry for excellent technical assistance in performance of this study.
FUNDING
This article was funded in part by United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Service Current Information System Grant 6251-51999-007-04S.