1988 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Modifying effects of carotenoids on the host-defense mechanism
| Project/Area Number |
62570257
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
公衆衛生学
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| Research Institution | Kurume University |
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Principal Investigator |
TOMITA Yoshifumi Kurume University, School of Medicine, Assoc. Prof., 医学部, 助教授 (70113230)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
TSURUTA Mari Kurume University, School of Medicine, Assistant, 医学部, 助手 (80197772)
SHIBATA Akira Kurume University, School of Medicine, Lecturer, 医学部, 講師 (10113226)
FUKUDA Katsuhiro Kurume University, School of Medicine, Prof., 医学部, 教授 (60045416)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1987 – 1988
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| Keywords | carotenoids / tumor immunity / 生体防御機能 |
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| Research Abstract |
Epidemiological studies have revealed the involvement of environmental factors, especially nutritional and dietary factors, in incidence of some sites of cancer and of some infectious diseases. The reverse correlation between intake of green-yellow vegetables and the risk of cancer has been reported increasingly and supported by some experimental studies suggesting one of possible means to prevent the diseases. However, the precise mechanism for the preventive effect of green-yelow vegetables is not clarified. This study deals with the effects of carotenoids, abundant in green-yellow vegetables, on the host-defense mechanism.
Administration of carotenoids significantly enhanced the immunological rejection against syngeneic tumors. The enhancing effect is apparently not related to their provitamin a potency, but related to their molecular structures. This finding seems to suggest that carotenoids in green-yelow vegetables may contribute to the prevention of cancer or infectious diseases by augmenting the host-defense mechanism. Metabolic conversion from carotenoids to retinol-like form may be essential to the exhibition of the effect, because retinol form of vitamin A enhanced the tumor rejection as shown in our previous work, however, present study was not intended to obtain any information on their metabolism. Further works in under way for elucidation of the mechanism.
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