Title: Dietary supplementation with tart cherries for prevention of inflammation-associated colorectal cancer in mice

Name: Ashli Hunter
Mentor: Abby Benninghoff

College: College of Science

Department: Biology


Hometown: Melba, ID

Abstract:
The cherry fruit is a nutrient-dense food that contains high amounts of anthocyanins. These bioactive food chemicals have anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties that contribute to changes in cell signaling pathways involved in inflammation, carcinogenesis and angiogenesis. In this project, we aimed to determine whether dietary supplementation with tart cherries, prevents colon tumor development in mice consuming a Western diet compared to a prudent diet. We hypothesized dietary supplementation with freeze-dried whole tart cherries would suppress development of colon tumors in a model of colorectal cancer (CRC) incorporating the typical Western diet. A 2×2 factorial design was employed, whereby mice were fed either the standard AIN93G diet or the total Western diet (TWD), both with and without Montmorency tart cherry powder for a total anthocyanin content of 188 mg/kg diet. The azoxymethane and dextran sodium sulfate model of inflammation-associated CRC was employed. Supplementation with tart cherry powder caused a significant 40% reduction (p<0.05) in tumor incidence in mice fed AIN93G, whereas tart cherries had no effect on tumor incidence in mice fed TWD.  Tart cherry powder supplementation did not impact colon tumor number or size.  TWD consumption markedly enhanced colitis activity (40-fold increase) and tumor multiplicity (near 6-fold increase) compared to mice fed AIN93G, but tart cherry supplementation did not reduce colitis in mice fed either diet. These observations point to important interactions between basal diets and dietary bioactive supplements and underscore the need for careful consideration of the role of basal diet in dietary chemoprevention studies in rodents.