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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2013 Apr;6(4):271-81.
doi: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-12-0327. Epub 2013 Jan 9.

Effects of ginger supplementation on cell-cycle biomarkers in the normal-appearing colonic mucosa of patients at increased risk for colorectal cancer: results from a pilot, randomized, and controlled trial

Jessica Citronberg  1 , Roberd Bostick, Thomas Ahearn, D Kim Turgeon, Mack T Ruffin, Zora Djuric, Ananda Sen, Dean E Brenner, Suzanna M Zick
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Effects of ginger supplementation on cell-cycle biomarkers in the normal-appearing colonic mucosa of patients at increased risk for colorectal cancer: results from a pilot, randomized, and controlled trial

Jessica Citronberg et al. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2013 Apr.

Abstract

To estimate the effects of ginger on apoptosis, proliferation, and differentiation in the normal-appearing colonic mucosa, we randomized 20 people at increased risk for colorectal cancer to 2.0 g of ginger or placebo daily for 28 days in a pilot trial. Overall expression and distributions of Bax, Bcl-2, p21, hTERT, and MIB-1 (Ki-67) in colorectal crypts in rectal mucosa biopsies were measured using automated immunohistochemistry and quantitative image analysis. Relative to placebo, Bax expression in the ginger group decreased 15.6% (P = 0.78) in the whole crypts, 6.6% (P = 0.95) in the upper 40% (differentiation zone) of crypts, and 21.7% (P = 0.67) in the lower 60% (proliferative zone) of crypts; however, there was a 19% increase (P = 0.14) in Bax expression in the upper 40% relative to the whole crypt. While p21 and Bcl-2 expression remained relatively unchanged, hTERT expression in the whole crypts decreased by 41.2% (P = 0.05); the estimated treatment effect on hTERT expression was larger in the upper 40% of crypts (-47.9%; P = 0.04). In the ginger group, MIB-1 expression decreased in the whole crypts, upper 40% of crypts, and lower 60% of crypts by 16.9% (P = 0.39), 46.8% (P = 0.39), and 15.3% (P = 0.41), respectively. These pilot study results suggest that ginger may reduce proliferation in the normal-appearing colorectal epithelium and increase apoptosis and differentiation relative to proliferation--especially in the differentiation zone of the crypts and support a larger study to further investigate these results.

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Conflict of interest statement

None of the authors had a conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Summary of biomarker immunohistochemical protocols and images (at 200x magnification) of colon crypts immunohistochemically processed for: Bax, apoptotic marker; Bcl-2, anti-apoptotic marker; p21, differentiation marker; MIB-1, proliferation marker (short term); hTERT, proliferation marker (long term)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Quantitative image analysis using Aperio Scanscope and CellularEyes software
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Ginger: is it ready for prime time?
    Stoner GD. Stoner GD. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2013 Apr;6(4):257-62. doi: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-13-0055. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2013. PMID: 23559451

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