Supplementation with Fermented Barley Extract Prevents Mammary Epithelial Cell Invasion in an Early Breast Cancer Model.

Diet-based prevention of malignant transformation contributes to the maintenance of quality of life by avoiding a battle against cancer. Invasion is one of the features of malignant breast cancer, and the prevention of invasion may reduce breast cancer malignancy. A recently established early breast cancer model system showed mammary ductal dysplasia with invasion in mice. This study utilized the model system and investigated the effect of fermented barley extract (FBE), a food material. The elastic fiber layer is the outermost layer of the mammary duct. A reduction in the elastic fiber layer was observed in the mammary glands of the model system, whereas supplementation with 8% FBE containing water prevented this reduction. Moreover, we found that FBE supplementation prevented mammary epithelial cell invasion. Based on our findings, FBE might be a candidate material for a diet-based prevention of early breast cancer invasion.
Competing Interests: IVJI was employee of Kyoto University’s Sponsored Research Program funded by Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. AN and HH are employees of Sanwa Shurui Co., Ltd. MT received research funding from Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. The funding source had no role in the study design, experiment, analysis, interpretation or writing the manuscript.
(2021 The Japan Society of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry.)