New Aspect on Etiology and Therapy of Collagen Diseases and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) axis is manipu lated throughout prostate epithelium neoplastic transformation to promote tumor growth, survival, and invasive metastasis. Natural and synthetic compounds that can target the IGF axis to prevent or reverse the aberrations associated with prostate cancer development and progression may be extremely useful in the chemoprevention and/or chemotherapy of prostate cancer. Apigenin, a naturally-occurring plant flavone found in many fruits and vegetables, is one such compound that can correctively modulate the IGF axis to induce growth arrest and apoptosis in many pre-clinical in vitro and in vivo models of prostate cancer. Because of its known mechanism of action and low toxicity and high effectiveness at physiologically relevant doses in animal models of prostate cancer, apigenin is an excellent candidate for a cl inical pilot study to determine the effect of oral apigenin supplementation on prostate cancer development and progression in humans .