Fat -1 is a gene in worms that converts omega 6 to omega 3. Animals and humans do not have that ability.
They have done trial where they insert the gene into pigs and mice and they make Omega 6 into Omega 3 and tend to balance the two.
Here they are seeing what happens to cancer cells if the fat gene is inserted into cancer cells and the cells put into mice.
The fat gene inhibited cell proliferation in prostate cancer.
In essence once again a balance of Omega 3s and 6s / lower Omega 6s may help inhibit cancer.
RB
Expression of the fat-1 gene diminishes prostate cancer growth in vivo through enhancing apoptosis and inhibiting GSK-3{beta} phosphorylation.
Lu Y, Nie D, Witt WT, Chen Q, Shen M, Xie H, Lai L, Dai Y, Zhang J.
Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare Systems, Room 2E146, University Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15240.
zhangj2@upmc.edu.
Epidemiologic studies inclusively indicate that "unhealthy" dietary fat intake is one of the potential risk factors for cancer. In dietary fat, there are two types of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), omega-3 (n-3) and omega-6 (n-6). Numerous studies support that the ratio of n-6/n-3 affects tumorigenesis. It was reported that adenoviral transfer of the fat-1 gene, which converts n-6 to n-3, into breast and lung cancer cells had an antitumor effect in vitro. However, the effects of the fat-1 gene expression on tumor growth in vivo have not been studied and the mechanisms remain unclear. Accordingly, prostate cancer DU145 and PC3 cells were transfected with either the fat-1 gene or a control vector. The cells that expressed the fat-1 gene had a lower n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio compared with the cells that expressed the control vector.
The fat-1 gene expression significantly inhibited prostate cancer cell proliferation and invasion in vitro. The fat-1 and control vector-transfected prostate cancer cells were s.c. implanted into severe combined immunodeficient mice for 6 weeks. The fat-1 gene expression significantly diminished tumor growth in vivo, but the control vector had no effect. Finally, we evaluated signaling pathways that may be important for fat-1 gene function. Administration of n-3 PUFA induced caspase-3-mediated prostate cancer cell apoptosis in vitro.
The fat-1 gene expression inhibited prostate cancer cell proliferation via reduction of GSK-3beta phosphorylation and subsequent down-regulation of both beta-catenin and cyclin D1. These results suggest that fat-1 gene transfer directly into tumor cells could be used as a novel therapeutic approach. [Mol Cancer Ther 2008;7(10):3203-11].