Cereal Chem. 71:359-363   |  VIEW ARTICLE


Protective Effects of Hard Red Versus Hard White Winter Wheats in Chemically Induced Colon Cancer in CF1 Mice.

B. B. Maziya-Dixon, C. F. Klopfenstein, and H. W. Leipold. Copyright 1994 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The relative protective effects of hard red versus hard white winter wheats in 1,2-dimethylhydrazine- induced colon cancer in CF1 mice were compared, and the effects of both whole wheats were compared with that of cellulose. Animals (50 per group) fed red wheat diets containing the whole wheat, bran, or endosperm had lower incidence of tumor development than those fed respective white wheat diets. Tumor incidence in animals fed a synthetic diet containing cellulose was not different from those fed the whole wheat diets containing similar amounts of insoluble dietary fiber. However, the number of tumors per tumor-bearing animal (multiplicity) was significantly lower in animals fed red whole wheat than it was in those fed the cellulose diet. Only animals fed the red bran diet had tumor incidence lower than that of the cellulose-fed animals. The tumors were located in the lower one-third of the colon; no metastasis to local lymph nodes and other tissues had occurred. Colon tumor incidence was weakly and inversely correlated with insoluble dietary fiber (r = -0.2477, P = 0.1050), total dietary fiber (r = -0.2489, P = 0.1033), and phytic acid (r = -0.2327, P = 0.1285) in the diets. Total phenolic compounds and vitamin E were higher in the red wheat than they were in the white wheat. The total amount of fecal neutral sterols excreted per day was significantly higher for animals fed red bran diet than it was for animals fed any other diet. There were no significant differences in excreted bile acid amounts between animals fed any white versus red wheat diets. Data suggest that no single factor measured plays a major role in protecting against chemically induced colon cancer in mice, but all of those factors may exert some antitumor effect.