Resumen de The induction of gut hyperplasia by phytohaemagglutinin in the diet and limitation of tumour growth
Ian F. Pryme, A. Pusztai, S. Bardocz, S. W. B. Ewen
The growth of a transplant ab le murine nonHodgki n lymphoma tumour, deve loping either intraperitonea lly as an ascites tumour or subcutaneously as a solid tumour, has been shown to be markedl y diminished by in c ludin g ph y to haemagg lutinin (PHA), a lec tin present in raw kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) in the di et. In NMRI mice fed PHA within the range 0.45-7.0 mglg d iet, tumours whi ch deve loped duri ng a 10 day pe riod afte r subcutaneous injection of cells we re about 35 % of th e dry we ig ht of th ose in lac ta lbumin-fed (control) animals. The red uced rate of growth occurred in a dose-dependent manner within the ra nge 0.45 -3.5 mglg d ie t. Based o n th ese obse rva ti o ns it has bee n suggested that a competition between the gut epithelium undergoing hype rpl asia and the developing tumour may occur for nutri ents from a common body pool, and this may be an important fac tor with rega rd to the observed initial low level of tumour growth fo llowing the feeding of a PHA-contai ning di et. Obse rvations which showed th at the leve l of hype rpl asia of th e s ma ll b owe l in response to feeding the PHA diets was hig her in noninjected mi ce compared to those w hich had been injected w ith tumo ur ce lls s ubst a nti a te d th e co nce pt of competition be tween g ut and tumour fo r nutri ents etc.
required fo r growth. Experiments with a second murine tumour cell line (a plasmacytoma) in Balb/c mice gave similar results indica ting that the effect of PHA was not restricted to a single tumour system.
