RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Generation of gaseous sulfur-containing compounds in tumour tissue and suppression of gas diffusion as an antitumour treatment
JF Gut
JO Gut
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Society of Gastroenterology
SP 554
OP 561
DO 10.1136/gutjnl-2011-300721
VO 61
IS 4
A1 Kazue Yamagishi
A1 Kazuo Onuma
A1 Yota Chiba
A1 Shinya Yagi
A1 Shigenobu Aoki
A1 Tomoyuki Sato
A1 Yasushi Sugawara
A1 Noriyasu Hosoya
A1 Yasutake Saeki
A1 Minoru Takahashi
A1 Masayoshi Fuji
A1 Takeo Ohsaka
A1 Takeyoshi Okajima
A1 Kenji Akita
A1 Takashi Suzuki
A1 Pisol Senawongse
A1 Akio Urushiyama
A1 Kiyoshi Kawai
A1 Hirofumi Shoun
A1 Yoshimasa Ishii
A1 Hiroya Ishikawa
A1 Shigeru Sugiyama
A1 Madoka Nakajima
A1 Masaru Tsuboi
A1 Tateo Yamanaka
YR 2012
UL http://gut.bmj.com/content/61/4/554.abstract
AB Background and aims The mechanisms of cancer cell growth and metastasis are still not entirely understood, especially from the viewpoint of chemical reactions in tumours. Glycolytic metabolism is markedly accelerated in cancer cells, causing the accumulation of glucose (a reducing sugar) and methionine (an amino acid), which can non-enzymatically react and form carcinogenic substances. There is speculation that this reaction produces gaseous sulfur-containing compounds in tumour tissue. The aims of this study were to clarify the products in tumour and to investigate their effect on tumour proliferation.Methods Products formed in the reaction between glucose and methionine or its metabolites were analysed in vitro using gas chromatography. Flatus samples from patients with colon cancer and exhaled air samples from patients with lung cancer were analysed using near-edge x-ray fine adsorption structure spectroscopy and compared with those from healthy individuals. The tumour proliferation rates of mice into which HT29 human colon cancer cells had been implanted were compared with those of mice in which the cancer cells were surrounded by sodium hyaluronate gel to prevent diffusion of gaseous material into the healthy cells.Results Gaseous sulfur-containing compounds such as methanethiol and hydrogen sulfide were produced when glucose was allowed to react with methionine or its metabolites homocysteine or cysteine. Near-edge x-ray fine adsorption structure spectroscopy showed that the concentrations of sulfur-containing compounds in the samples of flatus from patients with colon cancer and in the samples of exhaled air from patients with lung cancer were significantly higher than in those from healthy individuals. Animal experiments showed that preventing the diffusion of sulfur-containing compounds had a pronounced antitumour effect.Conclusions Gaseous sulfur-containing compounds are the main products in tumours and preventing the diffusion of these compounds reduces the tumour proliferation rate, which suggests the possibility of a new approach to cancer treatment.