Feed efficiency, some blood parameters and In- vitro chemoprevention of prickly pear (Opuntia ficus indica L.) seeds oil growing in Egypt

Abstract

Although chemoprevention has shown promise in some epithelial cancers, currently available preventive agents are limited and the agents are costly, generally with side effects. Cancer chemoprevention is a new approach in cancer prevention, in which chemical agents are used to prevent cancer in normal and/or high-risk populations. To find out the best natural product that can be used in chemoprevention of cancer, we tested the hexane extract of prickly pear seeds, for its feed efficiency, some blood profiles and anti-cancer effects in cultured cells and in an animal model. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of prickly pear seeds oil supplemented diet on rats on feed intake and body weight, feed efficiency ratio and protein efficiency ratio of rats were determined during 60 days of treatment and as well as to find a natural product that can be used in natural agent of cancer control. Hexane extract of prickly pear seeds were used to treat immortalized liver and colon cancer cells. Hexane extract of prickly pear seeds were used at six concentrations from (0.0, 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10 and 100 μm) to treat cells. Growth inhibition, apoptosis induction, and cell cycle changes were analyzed in the cultured cells; the suppression of cells growth in rats was evaluated. Immunohistochemistry staining of tissue samples from animal cells were performed to examine the gene expression. The obtained results indicated a significant decrease in serum glucose concentration (29.9%) over the control group. However, an increase in the concentration of glycogen was noted in liver. Blood cholesterol and low density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol decreased in the treated group. High density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol concentration remained unaltered during the treatment. These findings support the nutritional value of prickly pear seeds as a natural source of edible oil containing essential fatty acids and reinforce the possibility of prickly pear as a new crop for Egypt especially in semi-arid regions and newly reclaimed land where conventional crops are difficult to establish and Cancer cells exposed to prickly pear extracts had a significant increase in apoptosis and growth inhibition in both immortalized epithelial cells and cancer cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner.

Keywords:

Prickly pear seed oil, feed efficiency rati