Cancer: Breast, prostate
Action: Anti-angiogenic, anti-oxidative
Anti-angiogenic
Campesterol, a plant sterol in nature, is known to have cholesterol-lowering and anti-carcinogenic effects. Since angiogenesis is essential for cancer, it was surmised that an anti-angiogenic effect may be involved in the anti-cancer action of this compound. This study investigated the effect of campesterol on basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF)-induced angiogenesis in vitro in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and an in vivo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model.
Campesterol, isolated from an ethylacetate fraction of Chrysanthemum coronarium (L.), showed a weak cytotoxicity in non-proliferating HUVECs. Within the non-cytotoxic concentration range, campesterol significantly inhibited the bFGF-induced proliferation and tube formation of HUVECs in a concentration-dependent manner, without affecting the motility of HUVECs. Furthermore, campesterol effectively disrupted the bFGF-induced neovascularization in chick chorioallantoic membranes (CAM) in vivo.
Taken together, these results support a potential anti-angiogenic action of campesterol via an inhibition of endothelial cell proliferation and capillary differentiation (Choi et al., 2007).
Metastatic Breast Cancer
Porphyra dentata, an edible red macroalgae, is used as a folk medicine in Asia. The in vitro and in vivo protective effects of a sterol fraction from P. dentata against breast cancer, linked to tumor-induced myeloid derived-suppressor cells (MDSCs), was investigated.
A sterol fraction containing cholesterol, β-sitosterol, and campesterol was prepared by solvent fractionation of methanol extract of P. dentata in silica gel column chromatography. This sterol fraction in vitro significantly inhibited cell growth and induced apoptosis in 4T1 metastatic breast cancer cells. Intraperitoneal injection of this sterol fraction at 10 and 25 mg/kg body weight into 4T1 cell-implanted tumor BALB/c mice significantly inhibited the growth of tumor nodules and increased the survival rate of mice.
Two likely mechanisms for this effect can be suggested. First, the sample might cause the apoptosis of 4T1 cells. The other possible mechanism is that the sample may down-regulate the suppressive activity of MDSCs by affecting their ROS accumulation and arginase activity. This inhibition would be consistent with the use of Porphyra dentata as a folk medicine to treat inflammatory disorders and also for breast cancer (Kazlowska, Lin, Chang & Tsai, 2013).
Prostate Cancer
In the in vitro studies, both beta-sitosterol and campesterol inhibited the growth of human prostate cancer (PC-3) cells by 70% and 14%, respectively, while cholesterol supplementation increased the growth by 18% when compared with controls. Phytosterols (PS) mixture inhibited the invasion of PC-3 cells into Matrigel-coated membranes by 78% while cholesterol increased it by 43% as compared with the cells in the control media. PS supplementation reduced the binding of PC-3 cells to laminin by 15-38% and fibronectin by 23% while cholesterol increased binding to type IV collagen by 36%. It was concluded that PS indirectly (in vivo as a dietary supplement) and directly (in tissue culture media) inhibited the growth and metastasis of PC-3 cells (Awad et al., 2001).
References
Awad AB, Fink CS, Williams H, Kim U. (2001). In vitro and in vivo (SCID mice) effects of phytosterols on the growth and dissemination of human prostate cancer PC-3 cells. Eur J Cancer Prev, 10(6):507-13.
Choi JM, Lee EO, Lee HJ, et al. (2007). Identification of campesterol from chrysanthemum coronarium l. and its anti-angiogenic activities. Phytotherapy Research, 21(10), 954-959.
Kazlowska K, Lin HTV, Chang SH, Tsai GJ. (2013). In vitro and in vivo anti-cancer effects of sterol fraction from red algae porphyra. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2013(2013), 493869. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/493869.