Dietary supplementation with tart cherries for prevention of inflammation-associated colorectal cancer in mice

The cherry fruit is a nutrient-dense food that contains high amounts of anthocyanins. These bioactive food chemicals have anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties that contribute to changes in cell signaling pathways involved in inflammation, carcinogenesis and angiogenesis. In this project, we aimed to determine whether dietary supplementation with tart cherries, prevents colon tumor development in mice consuming a Western diet compared to a prudent diet. We hypothesized dietary supplementation with freeze-dried whole tart cherries would suppress development of colon tumors in a model of colorectal cancer (CRC) incorporating the typical Western diet. A 2×2 factorial design was employed, whereby mice were fed either the standard AIN93G diet or the total Western diet (TWD), both with and without Montmorency tart cherry powder for a total anthocyanin content of 188 mg/kg diet. The azoxymethane and dextran sodium sulfate model of inflammation-associated CRC was employed. Supplementation with tart cherry powder caused a significant 40% reduction (