Figure 3

Breast tumor growth in mouse models by dietary GE and/or TAM treatments. Two mouse models were used in this study. Figures 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D are involved in orthotopic breast cancer mouse model (Protocol 1, seen in Materials and methods). Female athymic nude mice were injected with MDA-MB-231 cells. GE or control diets were provided from two weeks prior to injection and one 21-day release of 25 mg TAM pellet was implanted subcutaneously two wks post-injection. A) and B) GE alone inhibited the growth of mice xenografts. C) and D) GE re-sensitized TAM in tumor suppression. A) and C) Tumor volume during the experiment. B) and D) tumor xenograft tissues were harvested at the termination of the experiment. Figures 3E and 3F are spontaneous breast cancer mouse model (Protocol 2). Diets were administered to C3(1)-SV40 Tag transgenic mice at 4–6 wks of age and TAM treatments were performed when tumor volumes reaches to ~400 mm³. E) Dietary GE increased the latency of tumor development. F) Tumor volume changes after TAM implantation. Tumor volumes were calculated by using the formula: volume (mm³) = (length × width²) × 0.523, and represented as mean ± SD (mm³) for each group. Tumor weight is the wet weight of the tumor per mouse in each group and is reported as mean ± SD (g). The actual tumor images were selected to represent the difference of tumor sizes and a ruler was included for tumor measurement. Symbols and columns, mean; Bars, SD from 5 or 10 mice per group; * p < 0.01, **, p < 0.001 significantly different from control group; †, P < 0.05, significantly different from TAM group (Figure 3F); £, P < 0.05, significantly different from GE (Figure 3F).