1. Volume 114, Issue 2, Pages 235-236 (February 1998)
Versatile bacteria 
Dan Gordon 
Gastroenterology 
Volume 114, Issue 2, Pages (February 1998)
DOI: /S (98)
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2. Antioxidants such as vitamin E seem to have a preventive effect against colon cancer, but only recently has a possible therapeutic role against existing cancer been suspected. Vitamin E or another antioxidant pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (PDTC) were found to induce apoptosis in cultured colon cancer cells. Furthermore, they enhanced the antitumor effects of 5FU and doxorubicin, both in vitro and in vivo. These actions were independent of the p53 status of tumor cells. The mechanism by which antioxidants inhibit tumor cell growth appears to involve the induction of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21WAF1/CIP1 by stimulation of transcription factor C/EBPβ that interacts with a nuclear recognition sequence known as NF-IL6 (because it also regulates interleukin-6 production). Overexpression of C/EBPβ reproduced effects of antioxidants including cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Thus the induction of a single transcription factor renders colon cancer cells more sensitive to killing by antitumor chemotherapeutic agents.
Gastroenterology  , DOI: ( /S (98) )
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