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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

synergistic effects, vitamin C, vitamin K3, colon, adenocarcinoma cell line

College

Life Sciences

Department

Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Abstract

In recent years in both clinical and experimental research the benefits of vitamins as anti-cancer agents have been described. Derivatives of vitamin C have been shown to “diminish the tumor mass in inoperable tumor patients” as well as cause degeneration of hepatocellular carcinoma in rats due to direct cytotoxicity to the tumor cells (1). Vitamin K3 has also been shown to induces DNA damage, reduced expression of c-myc, and caused apoptosis in human T-lymphocyte Jurkat cells, and other effects have also been seen in other cell lines (1). Studies have been done using these two vitamins in conjunction on human bladder and prostate cell lines, with effects similar to apoptosis called autoschizis (2,3). These effects are believed to be due to a redox cycle between vitamin C and vitamin K3 that produces oxygen radical, with vitamin C fostering the reduction of vitamin K3 by way of a single-electron reduction, which will increase the rate of redox cycling as well as increasing oxidative stress and cytotoxicity (1). In this study we show the synergistic effects of vitamin C and vitamin K3 on the WiDR human colon adenocarcinoma cell line. These data suggest that the synergistic effects of vitamin combinations may be an effective means for induction of apoptosis in human cancer cells.

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