Promising Chemoprevention of Colonic Aberrant Crypt Foci by Portunus segnis Muscle and Shell Extracts in Azoxymethane-Induced Colorectal Cancer in Rats.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE This study subjected a rat model to the extracts of muscle and shell tissues from Protonus segnis to assess their therapeutic effects on the HT-29 colon cancer cells as well as on colonic Aberrant Crypt Foci (ACF) induced by Azoxymethane (AOM). METHODS The cell line was exposed to the extracts to compare cytotoxicity of hexane, butanol, ethyl acetate, and water extract of muscle and ethanolic extract of shell. Male rats (n=40) were assigned into control, positive, negative, and treatment groups. The animals were injected with AOM, except the control group, and then exposed to 250 and 500mg/kg of the crud extracts. Immunohistochemical localization of Bax and Bcl-2 as well as ACF and antioxidant enzymes were evaluated in the rat colon. RESULTS The butanolic muscle extract and ethanolic shell one demonstrated an IC50 of 9.02±0.19µg/ml and 20.23±0.27µg/ml towards the cell line, respectively. Dietary exposure inhibited ACF formation and crypt multiplicity in colon compared to cancer control group. The activity of SOD and CAT increased, while that of MDA decreased. The expression of Bax and Bcl-2 increased and decreased, respectively. CONCLUSION Taken together, our results show that both extractions were suggested to be suppressive to AOM-induced colon cancer.