A group of Stanford Medicine researchersin the United States, has managed to find a “direct link“between fiber consumption and a series of genetic functions related to cancer prevention, which further highlights the importance of adding fiber-rich foods such as beans, nuts, cruciferous vegetables, or avocados.
In depth
“We found a direct link between fiber consumption and the modulation of genetic function that thas anticancer effects, and we believe that it is likely that this is a global mechanism because the short-chain fatty acids that result from the digestion of fiber can travel throughout the body,” said the professor of Genetics at Stanford Medicine Michael Snyder.
Afterwards, he recalled that generally “people’s diet is very poor in fiber“, which means that your microbiome is not fed properly, because “can’t make as many short-chain fatty acids as it should“, which “doesn’t do any favors“to people’s health.
More details
The research, published in the journal ‘Nature Metabolism‘, has managed to identify the direct epigenetic effects of two common byproducts of fiber digestion, such as propionate and butyrate (short chain fatty acids), whose genetic alterations can lead to anti-cancer actions.
Scientists have pointed out that, in addition to representing a source of energy for the bodythese two acids alter gene expression in healthy human cells, in treated and untreated human colon cancer cells, and in intestines of mice.
In fact, they have found direct epigenetic changes in specific genes that regulate proliferation and differentiation cellularalong with apoptosis, or preprogrammed cell death processesall of which are important in disrupting or controlling the uncontrolled cell growth that underlies cancer.
To take into account
“To the identify the target genes of these important moleculeswe can understand how fiber exerts its beneficial effects and what goes wrong during cancer,” he detailed. Snyderwho points out that these discoveries could also stimulate debate and research on the possible synergistic effects of diet and cancer treatment.
During the study, scientists have used chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing to map the genome-wide location of four short-chain acyl histone marks, the ‘H3K18pr‘, he ‘H3K18bu‘, he ‘H4K12pr‘and the ‘H4K12bu‘. Thus, propionate and butyrate bind and act as promoters of genes involved in growth, differentiation and ion transport.
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