Association between Obesity and Colon Cancer

Researchers from Michigan State University and Oakland University in Rochester, MI, discovered how leptin, a fat cell-derived hormone, may aid in the progression of colon cancer….The results appear in a paper called Novel Mechanism for Obesity-induced Colon Cancer Progression published in Carcinogenesis….Cells from the mice that carried the Apc mutation when stimulated with leptin produced significantly more vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) than the cells from the other mouse model, according to the investigators….These cells also had higher HUVEC cell proliferation, chemotaxis, upregulation of adhesion proteins, and cell-signaling activation resulting in nuclear factor kappa B nuclear translocation and DNA binding due to VEGF…. — GEN News