Docosahexaenoic Acid in the Inhibition of Tumor Cell Growth in Preclinical Models of Ovarian Cancer

Abstract

There is a strong rationale for investigating nutritional interventions with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in cancer prevention and therapy; however, the effects of DHA on ovarian cancer (OC) have not been well studied. Here, we investigated if DHA alone and in combination with carboplatin reduces OC cell growth in vitro. In vivo, we used a high-grade serous OC patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mouse model to investigate if DHA affects OC growth and enhances the anticancer actions of carboplatin. We showed synergistic cell killing by DHA and carboplatin in DHA-resistant Kuramochi and SKOV3 OC cells, which corresponded with increased DHA incorporation into whole-cell membrane phospholipids (P < 0.05). In vivo, feeding mice a diet supplemented with 3.9% (w/w of fat) DHA resulted in a significant reduction in PDX growth with and without carboplatin (P < 0.05). This reduction in tumor growth was accompanied by an increased tumor necrotic region (P < 0.05) and improved survival. Plasma membranes in tumors and livers excised from mice fed a DHA diet had ∼ twofold increase in DHA incorporation as compared with mice fed a control diet. Our findings indicate that DHA supplementation reduces cancer cell growth and enhances the efficacy of carboplatin in preclinical models of OC through increased apoptosis and necrosis.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/01635581.2021.1952453

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Drapkin for the fallopian tube cells. Flow cytometry was performed in the University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry (FoMD) Flow Cytometry Facility; this facility has received financial support from FoMD and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation awards to contributing investigators.

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Sawin-Baldwin Chair in Ovarian Cancer Research and the Dr. Anthony Noujaim Oncology Chair awarded to L.M. Postovit by the Women and Children Health Research Institute and the Alberta Cancer Foundation, respectively.