Differential effects of dietary Oenothera, Zizyphus mistol, and corn oils, and essential fatty acid deficiency on the progression of a murine mammary gland adenocarcinoma

Abstract The modulating effect of dietary enrichment in mistol seed oil (MO) containing 25% of α-linolenic acid (ALA), evening primrose oil (EPO) enriched in γ-linolenic acid (GLA) and corn oil (CO) as sources of ω-6 and ω-9 fatty acids on the growth parameters of one transplantable mammary tumor were compared. Mice fed on different lipid formulae were inoculated with a mammary gland adenocarcinoma and different growth development tumor parameters were recorded. Results showed that corn oil feeding slowed down most of the tumor growth parameters, as did the EPO diet. MO also showed antitumor activity. Olein feeding, which induces an essential fatty acid deficiency (EFAD), increased the incidence and the multiplicity of metastases when compared with the controls. It may be concluded that a diet enriched in ω-6 fatty acids did not behave as a tumor promoter in this mammary gland tumor model. The antitumor activities of EPO and MO are corroborated in present experiments, suggesting that both oils may be of value in nutritional approaches of mammary gland tumor therapies. In addition, present data add further experimental proof about the proposed protumorigenic proneness induced by the EFAD state.