GE Healthcare: Fish Oil May Play Protective Role in Colon Cancer Initi

    Business Editors/Healthcare Editors/Medical Editors
    BIOWIRE2K

    CHALFONT ST GILES, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 2005--

    Texas A&M University Utilizes GE Healthcare's CodeLink(TM) System To Identify the Protective Effects of Dietary Fat

    Data(1) published in a recent issue of Cancer Research, reported that researchers at Texas A&M University, using GE Healthcare's CodeLink(TM) microarrays, have identified key changes in gene expression that provide an improved understanding of how dietary fat composition affects the initiation and promotional stages of tumor development in the colon. These findings indicate that the chemopreventive effect of fish oil is due to the direct action of a particular type of polyunsaturated fatty acid, n-3 PUFA.
    Second only to lung cancer, colon cancer is a major cause of cancer death in the United States(2). According to the American Cancer Society, currently more than 106,370 people are diagnosed with colon cancer and 56,730 die each year. Environmental factors, including diet, are known to influence colon cancer incidence(3) and the discovery of how diet influences the progression of the disease may ultimately bring researchers closer to understanding methods of promoting prevention and halting progression.
    "This study provides the medical community with insight into the underlying mechanisms that regulate the onset and progression of colon cancer," said Robert S. Chapkin, Professor of Nutrition, Center for Environmental and Rural Health, Texas A&M University. "Until now the challenge has been finding a method to identify and track the gene-related effect of dietary fat in the colonic epithelium. CodeLink DNA microarrays provided us the advantage of detecting how dietary fat alters gene expression at the initiation and promotional stages of colon cancer. As a result, we were able to gather evidence that the chemopreventive effect of fish oil is due to the direct action of the fatty acid, n-3 PUFA, and not to a reduction in the content of n-6 PUFA."
    In this preclinical study, researchers assigned animals (Sprague Dawley rats) to three dietary treatments differing only in the type of fat (corn oil/n-6 PUFA, fish oil/n-3 PUFA, or olive oil/n-9 monounsaturated fatty acid), two treatments (injection with the carcinogen azoxymethane or with saline), and two time points (12 hours and 10 weeks after first injection). Only the consumption of n-3 PUFA exerted a protective effect at the initiation and promotional stages. Importantly, CodeLink(TM) microarray analysis discerned fundamental differences among animals treated with n-3 PUFA at both the 12 hours and 10-week time points. Thus, in addition to demonstrating that dietary fat composition alters the molecular portrait of gene expression profiles in the colonic epithelium at both the initiation and promotional stages of tumor development, these findings indicate that the chemopreventive effect of fish oil is due to the direct action of n-3 PUFA and not to a reduction in the content of n-6 PUFA.
    "As ongoing research continues to suggest, gene expression is consistently at the heart of deciphering how diseases are initiated, progress and are ultimately treated. To make groundbreaking findings that change lives, researchers demand technologies that have the affinity and power to see slight, yet significant changes in gene expression, which may have phenomenal impact on understanding disease progression. GE Healthcare's CodeLink platform was developed to meet this need and enable the gathering of information that will lead to tomorrow's important discoveries in a range of disease including cancer," said Chockalingam Palaniappan, Head of R&D in the Molecular Diagnostics division, GE Healthcare.

    About CodeLink

    The CodeLink Bioarray enables researchers to compare the expression level of thousands of genes in a single experiment, rather than examining individual gene activities one at a time. CodeLink Bioarrays utilize patented 3-D matrix technology along with functionally validated genes to offer the most reproducible, sensitive and reliable microarrays available.

    About GE Healthcare

    GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies that are shaping a new age of patient care. GE Healthcare's expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, disease research, drug discovery and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is dedicated to detecting disease earlier and tailoring treatment for individual patients. GE Healthcare offers a broad range of services to improve productivity in healthcare and enable healthcare providers to better diagnose, treat and manage patients with conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer's and cardiovascular diseases.
    GE Healthcare is a $14 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) that is headquartered in the United Kingdom. Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 42,500 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit www.gehealthcare.com

    (1)Cancer Research 64, 6797-5804 September 15, 2004
    (2)Jemal A, Thomas A, Murray T, Thun M. Cancer statistics, 2002. CA Cancer J Clin. 2002 Jan-Feb;52(1):23-47.
    (3)Potter JD, Slattery ML, Bostick RM, Gapstur SM. Colon cancer: a review of the epidemiology. Epidemiol Rev. 1993;15(2):499-545.

--30--IW/lo*

CONTACT: GE Healthcare Helen Longvill, +44 (0) 1494 498 050 Kristin Silady, +1 732 457 8149

KEYWORD: TEXAS UNITED KINGDOM INTERNATIONAL EUROPE INDUSTRY KEYWORD: PHARMACEUTICAL MEDICAL SOURCE: GE Healthcare

Copyright Business Wire 2005