Helmut Bartsch
German Cancer Research Center
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Featured researches published by Helmut Bartsch.
European Journal of Cancer | 2000
R.W Owen; A Giacosa; W.E Hull; R Haubner; B Spiegelhalder; Helmut Bartsch
In our ongoing studies on the chemoprevention of cancer we have a particular interest in the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet, of which olive oil is a major component. Recent studies have shown that extravirgin olive oil contains an abundance of phenolic antioxidants including simple phenols (hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol), aldehydic secoiridoids, flavonoids and lignans (acetoxypinoresinol, pinoresinol). All of these phenolic substances are potent inhibitors of reactive oxygen species attack on, e.g. salicylic acid, 2-deoxyguanosine. Currently there is growing evidence that reactive oxygen species are involved in the aetiology of fat-related neoplasms such as cancer of the breast and colorectum. A plausible mechanism is a high intake of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids which are especially prone to lipid peroxidation initiated and propagated by reactive oxygen species, leading to the formation (via alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydes such as trans-4-hydroxy-2-nonenal) of highly pro-mutagenic exocyclic DNA adducts. Previous studies have shown that the colonic mucosa of cancer patients and those suffering from predisposing inflammatory conditions such as ulcerative colitis and Crohns disease generates appreciably higher quantities of reactive oxygen species compared with normal tissue. We have extended these studies by developing accurate high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods for the quantitation of reactive oxygen species generated by the faecal matrix. The data shows that the faecal matrix supports the generation of reactive oxygen species in abundance. As yet, there is a dearth of evidence linking this capacity to actual components of the diet which may influence the colorectal milieu. However, using the newly developed methodology we can demonstrate that the antioxidant phenolic compounds present in olive oil are potent inhibitors of free radical generation by the faecal matrix. This indicates that the study of the inter-relation between reactive oxygen species and dietary antioxidants is an area of great promise for elucidating mechanisms of colorectal carcinogenesis and possible future chemopreventive strategies.
Food and Chemical Toxicology | 2000
Robert W. Owen; Walter Mier; Attilio Giacosa; William E. Hull; Bertold Spiegelhalder; Helmut Bartsch
The aim of this study was to evaluate the phenolic antioxidant and squalene content in a range of olive and seed oils. A mean of 290 +/- 38 (SEM) mg squalene/100 g was detected. However, while there was a weak significant difference between extra virgin (424 +/- 21 mg/kg) and refined virgin (340 +/- 31 mg/100 g; P<0.05) olive oils, highly significant differences were evident between extra virgin olive oils (P<0.0001) refined virgin olive oils (P<0.0001) and seed oils (24 +/- 5 mg/100 g). While seed oils were devoid, on average, the olive oils contained 196 +/- 19 mg/kg total phenolics as judged by HPLC analysis, but the value for extra virgin (232 +/- 15 mg/kg) was significantly higher than that of refined virgin olive oil (62 +/- 12 mg/kg; P<0.0001). Appreciable quantities of simple phenols (hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol) were detected in olive oils, with significant differences between extravirgin (41.87 +/- 6.17) and refined virgin olive oils (4.72 +/- 215; P<0.01). The major linked phenols were secoiridoids and lignans. Although extra virgin contained higher concentrations of secoiridoids (27.72 +/- 6.84) than refined olive oils (9.30 +/- 3.81) this difference was not significant. On the other hand, the concentration of lignans was significantly higher (P<0.001) in extra virgin (41.53 +/- 3.93) compared to refined virgin olive oils (7.29 +/- 2.56). All classes of phenolics were shown to be potent antioxidants. In future epidemiologic studies, both the nature and source of olive oil consumed should be differentiated in ascertaining cancer risk.
Langenbeck's Archives of Surgery | 2006
Helmut Bartsch; Jagadeesan Nair
Background and aimsChronic inflammation, induced by biological, chemical, and physical factors, was associated with increased risk of human cancer at various sites. Chronic inflammatory processes induce oxidative/nitrosative stress and lipid peroxidation (LPO), thereby generating excess reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS), and DNA-reactive aldehydes. Miscoding etheno- and propano-modified DNA bases are generated inter alia by reaction of DNA with these major LPO products. Steady-state levels of LPO-derived (etheno-) DNA adducts in organs affected by persistent inflammatory processes were investigated as potential lead markers for assessing progression of inflammatory cancer-prone diseases.ResultsUsing ultrasensitive and specific detection methods for the analysis of human tissues, cells, and urine, etheno-DNA adduct levels were found to be significantly elevated in the affected organs of subjects with chronic pancreatitis, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease. Patients with alcohol-related liver diseases showed excess hepatic DNA damage progressively increasing from hepatitis, fatty liver, to liver cirrhosis. Ethenodeoxyadenosine excreted after DNA repair in urine of hepatitis B virus-related chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis patients was increased up to 90-fold. Putative mechanisms that may control DNA damage in inflamed tissues including impaired or imbalanced DNA repair pathways are reviewed.ConclusionPersistent oxidative/nitrosative stress and excess LPO are induced by inflammatory processes in a self-perpetuating process and cause progressive accumulation of DNA damage in target organs. Together with deregulation of cell homeostasis, the resulting genetic changes act as driving force in chronic inflammation-associated human disease pathogenesis. Thus steady-state levels of DNA damage caused by ROS, RNS, and LPO end products provide promising molecular signatures for risk prediction and potential targets and biomarkers for preventive measures.
Mutation Research | 1988
Helmut Bartsch; Hiroshi Ohshima; Brigitte Pignatelli
Although the proof that N-nitroso compounds (NOC), a versatile class of carcinogens in animals, are also carcinogenic in man is lacking, humans are exposed through ingestion or inhalation to preformed NOC in the environment and through the endogenous nitrosation of amino precursors in the body. Activated macrophages can synthesize nitrate, nitrite and nitrosating agents that can form NOC. A number of bacterial strains isolated from human infections can produce NOC enzymatically from precursors at neutral pH. As a consequence endogenous nitrosation may occur at various sites of the body such as the oral cavity, stomach, urinary bladder, lungs, and at other sites of infection or inflammation. Since the demonstration by Mirvish et al. (1972) showing that ascorbate can reduce tumor formation in animals following feeding of nitrite plus amine, numerous substances to which humans are exposed have been identified and shown to inhibit formation of NOC in vitro, in animal models and in humans. Such inhibitors of nitrosation include vitamins C and E, phenolic compounds, and complex mixtures such as fruit and vegetable juices or other plant extracts. Nitrosation inhibitors normally destroy the nitrosating agents and thus act as competitors for the amino compound that serves as substrate for the nitrosating species. Independently, epidemiological studies have already established that fresh fruits and vegetables that are sources of vitamin C, other vitamins and polyphenols have a protective effect against cancers at various sites and in particular gastric cancer. Although the evidence that endogenously formed NOC are involved in human cancers is far from conclusive, it is suggestive and justifies preventive measures for reducing exposure to NOC. This article briefly reviews (i) the chemistry of NOC formation and inhibition, (ii) the studies in experimental animals which showed that inhibition of endogenous NOC synthesis leads to a reduction of toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic effects, (iii) recent studies in humans where the degree of inhibition of endogenous NOC synthesis was directly quantified and lastly (iv) the contribution of nitrosation inhibitors to human cancer prevention.
Food and Chemical Toxicology | 1990
Hiroshi Ohshima; Marlin D. Friesen; I. Brouet; Helmut Bartsch
3-Nitrotyrosine (NTYR) in tissue or blood proteins was evaluated as a possible exposure marker for exogenous and endogenous nitrosating or nitrating agents. A sensitive and selective method for analysing NTYR by gas chromatography with a thermal energy analyser (GC-TEA) was developed. Using this method, a number of kinetic studies were carried out. It was found that free and protein-bound tyrosine residues easily react with nitrating/nitrosating agents to yield NTYR. NTYR formation in vivo showed a dose-dependent increase in NTYR in both plasma proteins and haemoglobin obtained from rats 24 hr after ip injection of various doses (0.5-2.5 mumol/rat) of tetranitromethane. Major urinary metabolites of NTYR, given orally to rats, were isolated and identified as 3-nitro-4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid (NHPA) and 3-nitro-4-hydroxyphenyllactic acid (NHPL). About 44% and 5% of the oral dose of NTYR (100 micrograms/rat) was excreted as NHPA and NHPL, respectively. Eleven 24-hr human urine samples were analysed for NHPA by GC-TEA after ethyl acetate extraction and HPLC purification: quantities ranging from 0 to 7.9 micrograms/24 hr, mean +/- SD 2.8 +/- 2.3 (n = 11) were detected (detection limit 0.2 micrograms/litre). NTYR in proteins or its metabolites in urine can be readily analysed by GC-TEA as a new/additional marker for endogenous nitrosation and nitration.
Mutation Research\/reviews in Genetic Toxicology | 1980
Helmut Bartsch; C. Malaveille; Anne-Marie Camus; G. Martel-Planche; G. Brun; A. Hautefeuille; N. Sabadie; A. Barbin; T. Kuroki; C. Drevon; C. Piccoli; Ruggero Montesano
Results from tests on a total of 180 compounds in the Salmonella/microsome assay and its adapted procedures are summarized. The following specific problems were analyzed: the predictive value of the test; frequency distribution of chemicals (classes) according to their mutagenic activity; quantitative relationship between mutagenicity versus electrophilicity versus carcinogenicity of some selected carcinogens; chemicals that are activated into mutagens by human-liver enzymes; compounds that have been tested in the presence of rodent hepatic versus extra-hepatic tissue fractions; and some factors involved in the efficient detection of mutagens in vitro, i.e. the source and concentration of liver microsomal protein required for maximal mutagenic activity. As 34 chemicals have also been tested in microsome- or cell-mediated mutagenicity assays by using V79 Chinese hamster cells, an intercomparison is made of test results obtained in bacterial and mammalian assays.
Food and Chemical Toxicology | 2003
Robert W. Owen; Roswitha Haubner; Walter Mier; Attilio Giacosa; William E. Hull; Bertold Spiegelhalder; Helmut Bartsch
Because olives represent an important component of the Mediterranean diet, it is necessary to establish unequivocal identification and quantitation of the major potential antioxidant phenolic compounds they contain. The major phenolic antioxidants in two types of brined olives were isolated and purified by semi-preparative high performance liquid chromatography. Structural analysis was conducted using UV spectrophotometry, mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. In particular, completely assigned 1H and 13C NMR data are presented and errors in literature data are corrected. The data show that tyrosol, hydroxytyrosol, 3-(3, 4-dihydroxyphenyl) propanoic acid (dihydrocaffeic acid), dihydro-p-coumaric acid (phloretic acid), the phenylpropanoid glucosides acteoside (verbascoside) and isoacteoside, along with the flavonoids luteolin and apigenin are major components of the phenolic fraction of brined black olives. Brined green olives contain only hydroxytyrosol and traces of other minor phenolics. Brined olives contain even higher concentrations of phenolic antioxidants than olive oil and may, therefore, be more important modulators of cancer chemopreventive activity.
Mutation Research | 1999
Monica Hollstein; Manfred Hergenhahn; Qin Yang; Helmut Bartsch; Zhao-Qi Wang; Pierre Hainaut
The first p53 gene mutation arising in a human tumor was described a decade ago by Baker et al. [S.J. Baker, E.R. Fearon, J.M. Nigro, S.R. Hamilton, A.C. Preisinger, J.M. Jessup, P. van Tuinen, D.H. Ledbetter, D.F. Barker, Y. Nakamura, R. White, B. Vogelstein, Chromosome 17 deletions and p53 gene mutations in colorectal carcinomas, Science 244 (1989) 217-221]. There are now over 10,000 mutations extracted from the published literature in the IARC database of human p53 tumor mutations [P. Hainaut, T. Hernandez, A. Robinson, P. Rodriguez-Tome, T. Flores, M. Hollstein, C.C. Harris, R. Montesano, IARC database of p53 gene mutations in human tumors and cell lines: updated compilation, revised formats and new visualization tools, Nucleic Acids Res. 26 (1998) 205-213; Version R3, January 1999]. A large and diverse collection of tumor mutations in cancer patients provides important information on the nature of environmental factors or biological processes that are important causes of human gene mutation, since xenobiotic mutagens as well as endogenous mechanisms of genetic change produce characteristic types of patterns in target DNA [J.H. Miller, Mutational specificity in bacteria, Annu. Rev. Genet. 17 (1983) 215-238; T. Lindahl, Instability and decay of the primary structure of DNA, Nature 362 (1993) 709-715; S.P. Hussain, C.C. Harris, Molecular epidemiology of human cancer: contribution of mutation spectra studies of tumor suppressor genes, Cancer Res. 58 (1998) 4023-4037; P. Hainaut, M. Hollstein, p53 and human cancer: the first ten thousand mutations, Adv. Cancer Res. 2000]. P53 gene mutations in cancers can be compared to point mutation spectra at the HPRT locus of human lymphocytes from patients or healthy individuals with known exposure histories, and accumulated data indicate that mutation patterns at the two loci share certain general features. Hypotheses regarding specific cancer risk factors can be tested by comparing p53 tumor mutations typical of a defined patient group against mutations generated experimentally in rodents or in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells in vitro. Refinements of this approach to hypothesis testing are being explored that employ human p53 sequences introduced artificially into experimental organisms used in laboratory mutagenesis assays. P53-specific laboratory models, combined with DNA microchips designed for high through-put mutation screening promise to unmask information currently hidden in the compilation of human tumor p53 mutations.
Mutation Research | 1999
Jagadeesan Nair; Alain Barbin; Ivana Velic; Helmut Bartsch
Promutagenic etheno (epsilon) adducts in DNA are generated through reactions of DNA bases with LPO products derived from endogenous sources or from exposure to several xenobiotics. The availability of sensitive methods has made it possible to detect three epsilon-adducts in vivo, namely epsilon dA, epsilon dC and N2,3-epsilon dG. One probable endogenous source for the formation of these adducts arises from LPO products such as trans-4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE), resulting in highly variable background epsilon-adduct levels in tissues from unexposed humans and rodents. The range of background levels of epsilon dAx10-8dA detected inhuman tissues was <0.05 to 25 and in rodent tissues 0.02 to 10; the corresponding values for epsilon dCx10-8dC were 0.01 to 11 and 0.03 to 24, respectively. Part of this variability may be associated with different dietary intake of antioxidants and/or omega-6 PUFAs which oxidize readily to form 4-hydroxyalkenals, as epsilon dA and epsilon dC levels in WBC-DNA of female volunteers on a high omega-6 PUFA diet were drastically elevated. Increased levels of etheno adducts were also found in the liver of cancer-prone patients suffering from hereditary metal storage diseases, i.e., Wilsons disease (WD) and primary hemochromatosis (PH) as well as in Long-Evans Cinnamon rats, an animal model for WD. Increased metal-induced oxidative stress and LPO-derive epsilon-adducts, along with other oxidative damage, may trigger this hereditary liver cancer. Epsilon-Adducts could hence be explored as biomarkers (i) to ascertain the role of LPO mediated DNA damage in human cancers associated with oxidative stress imposed by certain lifestyle patterns, chronic infections and inflammations, and (ii) to verify the reduction of these epsilon-adducts by cancer chemopreventive agents. This article summarizes recent results on the formation, occurrence and possible role of epsilon-DNA adducts in carcinogenesis and mutagenesis.
International Journal of Cancer | 2000
H. Wikman; Angela Risch; F. Klimek; Peter Schmezer; Bertold Spiegelhalder; Hendrik Dienemann; Klaus Kayser; Volker Schulz; Peter Drings; Helmut Bartsch
Oxidative damage is implicated in several chronic diseases including cancer. 8‐Hydroxyguanine (8‐oxoG) is one of the major promutagenic DNA lesions, which is produced by reactive oxygen species, causes G:C to T:A transversions and is excised by OGG1, an 8‐oxoG specific DNA glycosylase/AP−Lyase. In a nested case‐control study, gDNA from 105 Caucasian primary non‐small cell lung cancer cases and 105 matched controls was screened for 6 possible new polymorphic sites in the human OGG1 gene, detected previously mainly in tumour tissue. The previously described Ser326Cys polymorphism was found to be common (allele frequency 0.22) in Caucasians. However, no major difference in Ser326Cys genotype distribution could be detected between cases and controls. Two 5`‐end polymorphisms previously found in Japanese as well as Arg131Gln could not be detected in this population. An Ala85Ser polymorphism was found in 2 controls, whereas Arg46Gln was detected in only 1 case. As the hOGG1 gene is mapped (3p26.2) to a region frequently lost in primary lung tumours, the frequency of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) was investigated. Forty‐three percent of the studied lung tumours exhibited loss of one of the hOGG1 alleles. The wt Ser326 allele was not predominantly lost in our sample set, which suggests a minor role of this polymorphism in tumourgenesis. Our results show that LOH at the hOGG1 gene locus is a very common occurrence in lung tumourgenesis, possibly leading to increased mutational damage due to ROS in smokers. However, the hOGG1 polymorphisms studied are probably not major contributors to individual lung cancer susceptibility in Caucasians. Int. J. Cancer 88:932–937, 2000.