Red Wine and Pomegranate Extracts Suppress Cured Meat Promotion of Colonic Mucin-Depleted Foci in Carcinogen-Induced Rats

ABSTRACT

Processed meat intake is carcinogenic to humans. We have shown that intake of a workshop-made cured meat with erythorbate promotes colon carcinogenesis in rats. We speculated that polyphenols could inhibit this effect by limitation of endogenous lipid peroxidation and nitrosation. Polyphenol-rich plant extracts were added to the workshop-made cured meat and given for 14 days to rats and 100 days to azoxymethane-induced rats to evaluate the inhibition of preneoplastic lesions. Colons of 100-d study were scored for precancerous lesions (mucin-depleted foci, MDF), and biochemical end points of peroxidation and nitrosation were measured in urinary and fecal samples. In comparison with cured meat-fed rats, dried red wine, pomegranate extract, α-tocopherol added at one dose to cured meat and withdrawal of erythorbate significantly decreased the number of MDF per colon (but white grape and rosemary extracts did not). This protection was associated with the full suppression of fecal excretion of nitrosyl iron, suggesting that this nitroso compound might be a promoter of carcinogenesis. At optimized concentrations, the incorporation of these plant extracts in cured meat might reduce the risk of colorectal cancer associated with processed meat consumption.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by French Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique.

Working costs of the fourteen-day DCNO study were paid by Institut Français du Porc (IFIP). We thank Florence Blas-Y-Estrada for animal care. This article is written in memoriam of J. L. Vendeuvre.

Declaration of Interest

G. Nassy and J. L. Vendeuvre were employed by the Institut Français du Porc (IFIP).

N. Bastide, N. Naud, S. Taché, F. Guéraud, D. Hobbs, G. Kuhnle, D. E. Corpet, F. H. F. Pierre: No conflicts of interest.

Author Contributions

N. Bastide and N. Naud contributed equally to this work; F. H. F. Pierre, D. E. Corpet, G. Nassy, and J. L. Vendeuvre designed research; Bastide, Naud, S. Taché, F. Guéraud, D. A. Hobbs, and G. Kuhnle conducted research; Bastide, Corpet, and Pierre analyzed data and wrote the paper; Corpet and Pierre had primary responsibility for final content. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.