Fatty acid synthase is over-expressed in large aberrant crypt foci in rats treated with azoxymethane.

Fatty acid synthase (FAS) is over-expressed in many human cancers including colon. High levels of FAS expression have also been observed in a number of lesions that are precursors to invasive colorectal cancer. However, FAS expression in aberrant crypt foci (ACF), the earliest identifiable lesions in colon cancer development, has not been investigated. In this study, we treated Fisher rats with a single dose of the colon carcinogen azoxymethane then evaluated ACF 100 days later. We showed that large ACF (>or=4 crypts/focus) have a significantly higher level of immunohistochemical staining for FAS than either small ACF (<or=3 crypts/focus) or normal crypts. Furthermore, the severity of nuclear atypia in ACF was positively associated with increased expression of FAS. These findings suggest that the genes associated with FAS over-expression are activated early in the stepwise development of colon cancer, though not until the ACF have reached a critical size with a level of nuclear atypia indicative of dysplasia.