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Health News Archive 580 - Skin Cancer
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Grape Seed Extract Decreases Skin Cancer Risk

Chemicals found in grape seeds may help ward of skin cancer due to regular exposure to the sun, according to the results of an animal study reported at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Researchers from the University of Alabama, Birmingham exposed hairless mice to ultraviolet-light. Some of the mice they fed a standard diet supplemented with grape seed proanthocyanidins, or GSPs, while control mice were fed a standard diet without this supplement.

Katiyar told attendees in Chicago that supplementation with grape-seed extracts at both levels (0.2 and 0.5 percent) reduced tumor incidence by 20 and 35 per cent, respectively, tumor multiplicity by 46 and 65 per cent, respectively, and tumor size by 66 and 78 per cent, respectively, compared to control mice with no supplementation.

Dietary supplementation with GSPs inhibited light-induced carcinogenesis, study chief Dr. Santosh K. Katiyar told the conference. Mice supplemented with GSPs had up to 65 percent fewer tumors than control mice did. "It suggests that regular consumptions of GSPs as a dietary supplement may be beneficial for the prevention of skin cancers," Katiyar said in a written statement.

Supplementation with grape seed extract appears to reduce the UVB-induced increase in the cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10), which suppresses immune function. At the same time, it increased production of IL-12, which stimulates the immune system.

The researcher concluded: "our data show that [oral] grape seed proanthocyanidins have the ability to protect the skin from the adverse effects of UVB radiation via modulation of the MAPK and NF-kappaB signaling pathways and provide a molecular basis for the photoprotective effects of GSPs in an in vivo animal model."

Source: Sharma SD, Meeran SM, Katiyar SK. Dietary grape seed proanthocyanidins inhibit UVB-induced oxidative stress and activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases and nuclear factor-{kappa}B signaling in in vivo SKH-1 hairless mice.  Mol Cancer Ther. 2007 Mar;6(3):995-1005. PMID: 17363493

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