Short chain fatty acids and colon cancer

Abstract

The development of intestinal cancer involves complex genetic and epigenetic alterations in the intestinal mucosa. The principal signaling pathway responsible for the initiation of tumor formation, the APC-βcatenin-TCF4 pathway, regulates both cell proliferation and colonic cell differentiation, but many other intrinsic and extrinsic signals also modulate these cell maturation pathways, The challenge is to understand how signaling and cell maturation are also modulated by nutritional agents, Through gene expression profiling, we have gained insight into the mechanisms by which short chain fatty acids regulate these pathways and the differences in response of gene programs, and of the specifi..