![Sample our Health and Social Care journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5938/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Health-Social-Care.jpg"})
Abstract
Regular consumption of fruits and vegetables is associated with reduced risks of certain cancers and other diseases in observational studies and animal models of human diseases. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether feeding of rats with whole raw apple has potentially chemopreventive properties by affecting markers of colon cancer. The end-point was preneoplastic changes in the colon known as aberrant crypt foci (ACF). Rats initiated with the colon carcinogen 1,2-dimethylhydrazine dihydrochloride (DMH) were given 0, 5, or 10 g apple/day for 13 wk. The group fed 5 g apple but not 10 g had a significantly lower number of ACF (P = 0.009) compared to the initiated control. DNA damage evaluated by the comet assay was significantly increased in leucocytes of DMH-treated animals (P = 0.021). No antigenotoxic effect of apple feeding was apparent in the colon. Apple feeding tended to lower DNA damage in the liver (P = 0.136 in DMH-initiated and P = 0.284 in noninitiated rats). Liver alanine aminotransferase was significantly increased in rats fed apples (P = 0.008 in DMH-initiated and P = 0.019 in noninitiated rats). In conclusion, feeding whole fresh apple may affect the occurrence of preneoplastic changes in the rat colon, but the effect was not gradual.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study is part of a large European study, ISAFRUIT (www.isafruit.org), which aims to increase fruit consumption within Europe and, more specifically, to look at the effects of apple consumption on a number of biological parameters. This work was partially financed by the ISAFRUIT project. The ISAFRUIT project is funded by the European Commission under the Thematic Priority 5-Food Quality and Safety of the 6th Framework Programme of RTD (Contract no. FP6-FOOD-CT-2006-016279). The views and opinions expressed in this publication are purely those of the writers and may not, in any circumstances, be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission.
The authors thank Vibeke Kegel, Karen Roswall, Merete Lykkegaard, Margit W. Frederiksen, and Bodil Madsen for excellent technical assistance, and Anne Ørngreen and her staff for professional handling of animals.