Effect of polyunsaturated fatty acid-enriched phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserine on butyrate-induced growth inhibition, differentiation and apoptosis in Caco-2 cells.

Phospholipids are fascinating in terms of important bio-functional compounds. The present work investigated the effect of polyunsaturated phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylserine (PS) on butyrate-induced growth inhibition, differentiation and apoptosis using Caco-2 cells. Growth inhibition of Caco-2 cells became apparent 24 h after addition of PC while it took 48 h with PS. Alkaline phosphatase activity of Caco-2 cells increased with combined PC or PS and sodium butyrate (NaBT) at 72 h, indicating that PC and PS enhanced cell differentiation in the presence of NaBT. An increased enrichment factor was also found when cells were treated with combinations of PC or PS and NaBT. These results suggest that marine PC and PS can be considered to be potentially useful colon cancer chemotherapy agents with high bio-availability. Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.