Inhibition of tumor growth by dairy products

Effects of dairy products (cheeses and yoghurt) on growth of transplanted murine tumors were examined in various tumor-host combinations. Suppression of tumor growth was observed in proportion to the duration of feeding. Peripheral lymph-node (LN) cells of mice fed dairy products showed an increment in the fluorescence intensity of Thy-1.2+ cells in FACS analysis. These cells showed an augmented PHA response and a remarkable antitumor effect in tumor neutralization test (Winn's assay) compared to control lymphocytes. These results suggest that dairy products enhance the activity of peripheral LN cells to suppress the tumor growth. Moreover, serum transfer from cheese fed mice revealed the protective effects against tumors, while that from yoghurt fed mice did not show such an effect. In the former mice, serum iron level was increased compared to control levels but antibody response to sheep erythrocytes (SRBC) was not augmented. From these results, we propose a hypothesis that lymphocytes may be activated by transferable serum factors such as iron-saturated transferrin and suppression of tumor growth caused by the effector-target interaction which is mediated by effector-associated transferrin in the case of cheese fed mice. In yoghurt fed mice another mechanism is suspected because of the low level of serum iron.