The Effect Of Overweight And Obesity On Adiponectin Levels And Its Association To Colon And Pancreatic Cancers
Open Access
Author:
Olock, Brittany Victoria
Area of Honors:
Nutritional Sciences
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Connie Jo Rogers, Thesis Supervisor Rebecca L Corwin, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
adiponectin colon cancer breast cancer in vitro cell proliferation
Abstract:
Obesity is a growing problem in this nation as well as the rest of the world. Many
factors are involved in the development and progression of obesity. After the discovery of adiposity hormones, much research has been conducted to understand the mechanisms of these hormones. Adiponectin is the adiposity hormone highlighted in this paper. Recent studies have shown a protective effect of adiponectin on pancreatic and colorectal cancers. However, no studies had investigated the effects of adiponectin in vitro. Our proposed hypothesis was that adiponectin would not change cell proliferation, but lower levels of adiponectin would increase tumor cell growth. We used an MTT assay to measure cell proliferation for 72 hours. The growth of both pancreatic tumor cells (Panc.02) and colon cancer cells (MC38) did not significantly change with the introduction of adiponectin at physiological levels. In addition, cells growing in fetal calf serum proliferated twice as fast as those in serum free media. In conclusion, low levels of adiponectin did not promote tumor cell growth and high levels of adiponectin did not decrease cell growth.
