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High-Fat Diet May Alter Gut Stem Cells
14 Nov
Summary
- High-fat diet alters intestinal stem cells, increasing their numbers.
- Lasting molecular memory in stem cells observed after diet changes.
- Genetically prone mice showed more, larger tumors on high-fat diet.
Research indicates that a high-fat diet could influence the risk of colon cancer by causing enduring changes in intestinal stem cells. Studies on mice revealed that prolonged consumption of a Western-style high-fat diet resulted in an increase in intestinal stem cells, which also exhibited accelerated division rates. These cells are crucial for gut lining maintenance but can also be the origin of tumors.
Significantly, some of these dietary-induced changes in stem cells persisted even after the mice were switched to a low-fat diet. This suggests a 'molecular memory' in the stem cells, affecting DNA packaging and gene accessibility. For mice genetically predisposed to intestinal cancer, a high-fat diet was associated with the development of more and larger tumors, with prior high-fat exposure exacerbating this effect.
