Vitamin A And Apoptosis In Colonic Tumor Cells

The mechanism by which vitamin A prevents or delays chemical carcinogenesis remains unclear In addition to these antimutagenic and antiproliferative activities, vitamin A seems able to induce programmed cell death. In this study, we assess the suggested role of vitamin A on the in vitro apoptosis induction in a rat colonic tumor cell line, Several concentrations of retinyl palmitate were added in the culture media, We observed cell proliferation by measuring the (H-3)thymidine incorporation, cell differentiation by measuring the intestinal alkaline phosphatase expression, and apoptosis induction by DNA fragmentation and morphological evolution of adherent and floating cells. The results show that vitamin A decreases (H-3)thymidine incorporation after 1 day of treatment, induces alkaline phosphatase expression, and increases the number of cells falling in apoptosis. This report confirms the role of vitamin A on the induction of cell differentiation, on the inhibition of cell proliferation and shows the vitamin A capacity to induce apoptosis. These results could be attractive to prevent development of colon cancer by vitamin A supplemented diets.