INDIAN JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY, vol.61, no.02, pp.83-89, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
Breast cancer, the second most common cancer after lung cancer, is the most common cancer type diagnosed in women.
No definitive treatment has been established for breast cancer yet, but essential fatty acids offer a promising option. Omega
fatty acids are classified in the essential fatty acids that the body cannot produce and, therefore, must be taken through the
foods of animal or plant origin. Although in the literature the omega fatty acids have been shown to exhibit significant
positive effects in inhibiting various tumor types, their mechanism of action, the apoptotic pathways they employ, and the
genes they control have not been clarified yet. In this study, various doses and combinations of omega-3 [Eicosapentaenoic
acid (EPA), Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)] and omega-6 [Linoleic acid (LA)] fatty acids were administered to human breast
cancer MCF7 cell line for 24 h, and using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method, the protein expression
levels of the following apoptosis-related genes were determined: phospho-p53 (Ser15), p53, Bad, phospho-Bad (Ser112),
cleaved Caspase-3 (Asp175), and cleaved PARP (Asp214). Even though there was no significant difference observed in the
expressions of phospho-p53 (Ser15) and p53 at all doses, other protein expressions were found to increase significantly,
suggesting that Omega-3 and -6 can mediate apoptotic pathway to induce cell death in breast cancer cells.