More questions and caveats than answers.
http://www.ehponline.org/members/200...rich-full.html
A Novel Endocrine-Disrupting Agent in Corn with Mitogenic Activity in Human Breast and Prostatic Cancer Cells
Barry Markaverich,1,2 Shaila Mani,2 Mary Ann Alejandro,1,2 Andrea Mitchell,2 David Markaverich,1,2 Trellis Brown,1,2 Claudia Velez-Trippe,1,2 Chris Murchison,1 Bert O'Malley,2 and Robert Faith1
1Center for Comparative Medicine and 2Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
"Extracts from fresh corn kernels or cob also contained this mitogenic activity when assayed in MCF-7 cells (Figure 10A) and the mitogen fractionated on Spice C18 cartridges in a manner indistinguishable (Figure 10B) from that isolated from ground corncob bedding (Figure 5B). A similar mitogenic activity in a corn tortilla extract preparation (80% methanol eluate from C18 mini-columns) was detected after addition to cultured MCF-7 cells (Figure 11), demonstrating that human food products derived from corn contain this mitogenic material.
We suspect that corn oil also contains this substance(s) but this has not been investigated."
"In summary, although the potential effects of CM on human populations remains to be resolved, the studies described in this article show that in addition to ground corncob bedding, fresh corn on the cob (kernels and cob) and corn tortillas contain CM. The CM activity from these foods stimulates breast and prostatic cancer cellular proliferation and will likely disrupt endocrine function and behavior as well."
"Thus, CM present in corn products may complicate experimental results in animal studies, and human exposure to this endocrine-disrupting agent is likely.
Although it is well established that consumption of high-fat diets (23-24% corn oil) increases the incidence, growth, and metastases of mammary, liver, and colon cancer in a variety of experimental systems (47-49), the question of whether acute or sustained exposure to CM and/or related compounds, alone or in combination, represents a significant health problem remains to be resolved."
http://www.ehponline.org/members/200...rich/fig10.jpg