Evaluation of selected chemopreventive agents present in common foods in mouse mammary gland organ culture

Prevention of cancer by natural and synthetic non-toxic chemopreventive agents has become a major research area in the past 15 years. The naturally occurring chemopreventive agents from the herbal medicine and edible plants can be evaluated in a variety of bioassays and identified for their activity as cancer preventive agents. We have adapted a mouse mammary gland organ culture assay (MMOC) for evaluating chemically pure chemopreventive agents for their activity to inhibit 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA)-induced mammary alveolar lesions (MAL). Here, we report a list of 32 agents that are found in the herbs or edible foods and showing inhibition of more than 55% in MMOC. From the studies reported in the literature it appears that there is a good correlation between the effects in MMOC and effects observed with in vivo carcinogenesis models. Recently, we have modified the MMOC assay to evaluate efficacy of chemopreventive agents specifically the ones that may have anti-estrogenic activity. Thus, MMOC provides a valuable tool for preliminary evaluation of chemopreventive agents prior to conducting a long-term animal carcinogenesis studies.