High-Fat Diet Mutates Cells into Stem Cells Causing Colorectal Cancer, Research Says

Researchers have found the link between fatty diet and colorectal cancer. Fatty diet controls intestinal stem cells function that contributes to tumor formation.

The study explains the changes made by high-fat diet to the body's cells. This will also tell how overweight people is susceptible to cancer.

According to the study, fatty diet creates a pool of other cells that can reproduce themselves the same way a stem cell does. It makes the intestinal lining cells susceptible to cancer, as reported by Deccan Chronicle.

The study to see the possible link between fatty foods and cancer was tested on healthy mice. These mice were fed with fatty diet for 9-12 months. It is consist of 60 percent fat, higher than a typical American diet which only has 20-40 percent.

The mice that were fed with high-fat diet gained up to 50 percent more weight and developed more intestinal tumors compared to mice with normal diet. The researchers also discovered some noticeable changes from the mice on fatty diet group's intestinal stem cells.

The mice on fatty diet developed more stem cells in the intestine compared to the other group. These stem cells can operate without the help from other cells called the niche cells. This behavior is not normal to intestinal stem cells because they usually need the support of other cells telling them when to generate stem cells or other cells.

The affected stem cells were able to function on their own even if they were removed from the mice's intestines and cultured without their niche cells. They have easily formed into "mini-intestines" compared to mice on normal diet, according to You.co.za.

Professor Omer Yilmaz's laboratory is now doing some further investigation on how too much fat mutates stem cells. They are also trying to find a possible drug that targets tumors that have developed through obesity.

 "Not only does the high-fat diet change the biology of stem cells, it also changes the biology of non-stem-cell populations, which collectively leads to an increase in tumor formation," he said.