Four types of fatty acids exert differential impact on pancreatic cancer growth

Increased fatty acids (FAs) regulate pancreatic cancer progression, however, the detailed mechanism is not clear, and different forms of FAs may play diversified roles in pancreatic cancer. To elucidate the underlying mechanism, we compared the effects of four major types of FAs on pancreatic cancer growth both in cell culture and in a mouse model. HPAF pancreatic cancer cells were implanted in nude mice for 14 weeks, and the mice were fed with four different high-fat/high-energy diets (15% fat, 4 kcal/g), an iso-caloric diet (5% fat, 4 kcal/g) and a normal diet (4% fat, 3 kcal/g). The high fat diets were rich in saturated fatty acids (SFAs), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), and n-6 and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n6- and n3PUFAs), respectively. While n3PUFA diet decreased tumor viability, the other high fat diets stimulated tumor viability by apparently different mechanisms. For instance, xenografts whose carriers were fed with SFA diet had marked expression of cancer-related proteins and lipid droplets. Although mice that were fed with MUFA- and n6PUFA diets had pancreatic tumors of similar size, liver metastasis occurred more frequently in those with the n6PUFA diet. In experiments in vitro, the HPAF-cell population was increased by SFAs and MUFAs, decreased by n3PUFAs and not changed by n6PUFAs. In conclusion, different fatty acids have different impact on pancreatic cancer cells. The effects of fatty acids on pancreatic cancer cells were consistent in vivo and in vitro except that n6PUFAs only had regulatory effects in vivo.