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A team of researchers from the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute has found evidence to suggest that adding salt to the diet of mice may suppress the growth of cancerous tumors. In their article published in the journal Scientists progress, the group described feeding laboratory mice with tumors on a high sodium diet and compared their ability to suppress tumor growth with mice on a normal diet.
For many years, doctors have warned patients to reduce the amount of salt in their diet. Previous research has shown that a diet high in sodium can lead to inflammation, high blood pressure, and an increased risk of heart attack. In this new effort, researchers questioned whether inflammation from a high-salt diet might also confer positive health benefits, such as fighting cancerous tumors.
To find out if this could be the case, the researchers fed two groups of laboratory mice with melanoma either a normal diet or a diet high in sodium, and then measured the differences in tumor suppressing abilities between the two groups. They found that mice on a high sodium diet exhibited an increase in Bifidobacterium probiotics, leading to an increase in the type of immune cells that attack cancerous tumors. They also found an increased ability to inhibit PD-1 proteins that prevent T cells from attacking tumors.
Further examination showed that the high sodium diet made the intestinal barrier more permeable, allowing bifidobacteria to travel from the intestine to the sites where the tumors were located. They also found that once the bifidobacteria made their way to a tumor, the crosstalk between them and the immune cells that attacked the tumor resulted in a more successful attack.
The researchers also found that a low sodium diet worked in conjunction with several anti-cancer drugs, showing an increased ability to reduce tumor growth. And they also found that performing fecal transplants from mice on a high sodium diet to those on a normal diet also improved their ability to fight tumor growth.
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Zaigham Abbas Rizvi et al, The high salt diet mediates the interaction between NK cells and the gut microbiota to induce potent tumor immunity, Scientists progress (2021). DOI: 10.1126 / sciadv.abg5016
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Quote: Adding Salt to Mouse Diet Suppresses Cancer Tumor Growth (2021, September 20) Retrieved September 20, 2021 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-09-adding-salt- mouse-diet-suppress.html
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