Researchers from Spain and the United States showed that palmitic acid – the main saturated acid in palm oil – contributes to the development of metastasis of mouth and skin cancer. Dedicated to the dangerous property of palm oil The article of scientists was published in the Nature magazine.
Metastases of cancer tumors remain one of the main causes of death in cancer. Fatty acids contribute to their occurrence, however, it was not yet possible to reveal, which of them are participating in this process. In its experiment, researchers from the Institute of Biomedical Studies of Barcelona, together with colleagues from the United States, subjected the cells of the oral and skin oral tumor cells for four days of three types of food fatty acids – palmitine, oleinova and linoleic.
After that, the cells were introduced into the appropriate mice fabrics on a standard diet. The cells on which the palmitic acid was actuated, the size of metastasis increased. For olein and linoleic acids, there was no such dependence. With the introduction of palmitic acid in the mice diet, it not only contributed to the development of metastases, but also had a long-term influence on the genome: cancer cells exposed to the “palmitic” diet remained metastatic even after its termination.
Moreover, the cancer cells “remembered” the effects of palmitic acid. Tumors taken in mice on a rich diet rich in palm oil, when transplanting individuals on a normal diet remained prone to metastasis. The researchers found that this memory is caused by epigenetic changes that allow cancer cells to form a certain neural network around the tumor and communicate with surrounding cells. Researchers managed to find a way to suppress it. They plan to conduct clinical tests to suppress metastasis.