New Delhi, September 18 (IANS). To avoid tumors, one should consume meat and milk proteins. Both of these act as antigens. It has come out in the report that these are capable of preventing the growth of tumors in the human body and especially in the small intestine.
Research led by the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences in Japan has revealed how the protein stimulates the intestinal immune system. Apart from this, it also prevents new tumors from growing.
Hiroshi Ohno at RIKEN IMS said, “Tumors of the small intestine are much rarer than those of the large intestine. However, the risk is higher in cases of familial adenomatous polyposis, so the clinical use of elemental diets to treat inflammatory bowel disease or other gastrointestinal conditions in these patients should be considered very carefully.”
Familial adenomatous polyposis is an inherited syndrome that predisposes one to develop colon cancer.
Antigens are primarily found in plants and legumes. They are usually seen as foreign objects and must be investigated by the immune system.
He has previously reported that food antigens activate immune cells in the small intestine and that these cells, when activated by gut bacteria, are known to suppress tumors in the intestine.
In the new study, published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Immunology, researchers studied mice to determine whether food antigens suppress tumors in the small intestine.
The first experiment, involving mice fed either a normal diet or an antigen-free diet, showed that the normal diet produced fewer tumors in the small intestine but the same number of tumors in the large intestine.
The team added a common representative antigen called albumin—found in meat—to the antigen-free diet. This was done to ensure that the total amount of protein was equal to the amount of protein in a normal diet.
When mice were fed this diet, tumors in the small intestine were suppressed in the same way as those fed a normal diet. This showed that tumor suppression was not directly related to the nutritional value of the food, the researchers said.
The diet also reduced T cells in mice that ate a plain antigen-free diet, compared with mice that received normal food or an antigen-free diet with milk proteins.
However, the researchers cautioned that this could be risky and stressed the need to follow such a diet only under the advice of a doctor.
–IANS
SHK/GKT
