Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Functional Foods journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jff Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) sprouts containing supranutritional levels of selenium decrease tumor growth of colon cancer cells xenografted in immune-suppressed mice Daniela Guardado-Félix a,b , Marilena Antunes-Ricardo b , María R. Rocha-Pizaña b,c , Ana-Carolina Martínez-Torres d , Janet A. Gutiérrez-Uribe b,c, ⁎ , Sergio O. Serna Saldivar b, ⁎ a Programa Regional de Posgrado en Biotecnología, Facultad de Ciencias Químico-Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, FCQB-UAS, AP 1354, C.P. 80000 Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico b Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Centro de Biotecnología FEMSA, Av. Eugenio Garza Sada 2501 Sur, C.P. 64849 Monterrey, NL, Mexico c Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Campus Puebla, Vía Atlixcáyotl 2301, Reserva Territorial Atlixcáyotl, C.P. 72453 Puebla, Pue, Mexico d Department of Immunology and Virology, Biological Sciences Faculty, Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, San Nicolas de los Garza C.P. 66455, N.L, Mexico ARTICLEINFO Keywords: Chickpea Colon cancer Isofavonoids Selenium Xenograft ABSTRACT The efect of selenium enriched chickpea sprouts with and without isofavonoids (IS) on colorectal cancer (CRC) tumor growth was evaluated in immune-suppressed mice xenografted. Two levels of selenium (0.17 and 2.29 µg/ g) and isofavonoids (0 and 2.34 mg/g) were evaluated in the diets. High intake of Se (2.29 µg/g) with and without isofavonoids increased glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and tioredoxin reductase (TrxR) activities, cho- lesterol (CHOL), triglycerides (TRIGL) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels and decreased signifcantly the tumor growth. Diet containing selenium at 2.29 µg/g and isofavonoids at 2.34 mg/g levels promoted apoptosis through the overexpression of Fas cell surface death receptor (Fas). High selenium levels in chickpea sprouts exert chemopreventive efects mediated mainly by the antioxidant protection of glutathione peroxidase. Selenized chickpea sprouts represent an excellent source of dietary selenium and isofavonoids with chemopreventive potential and could be potentially used in the treatment of colorectal cancer. 1. Introduction Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most commonly diagnosed malignancy in males and females worldwide with an annual incidence of about 1.36 million estimated in 2012 (GLOBOCAN, 2012). Foods containing chemopreventive compounds are an important alternative for the control of this disease. Selenium is a trace mineral that is essential in the nutrition of hu- mans and animals. It acts as a cofactor of selenoenzymes such as glu- tathione peroxidase (GPx) and thioredoxin reductase (TrxR), which reduce the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and maintain the cellular redox balance (Hu, McIntosh, Le Leu, Woodman, & Youn, 2008). The daily recommended selenium intake is 50 µg/day for an adult with average weight of 70 kg. The intake of supranutritional le- vels of selenium (200 µg/day) reduces cancer risk (Combs et al., 2012), however, levels higher than 350 µg/day are considered toxic in adults (Sanmartín, Plano, Sharma, & Palop, 2012). Cereals, sea foods, muscle meat, mushrooms, garlic, broccoli and brazil nuts are a good source of dietary selenium (Moreda, Moreda, Romaris, Dominguez, & Rodriguez, 2013). However, the selenium content in foods is afected by selenium levels in the soil. Worldwide 15% of the world population have sele- nium defciency, due to the consumption of foods with low selenium content (Lazo-Vélez, Chávez-Santoscoy, & Serna-Saldivar, 2015). Daily requirements of selenium can be satisfed with foods enriched with selenium. Previous studies have demonstrated the anticarcinogenic potential of dietary selenium by the inhibition of tumor growth of breast (Warrington et al., 2013; Guo, Hsia, Hsiunge, & Chend, 2015; Yuan et al., 2016) and colon (Bhattacharya et al., 2011; Yoshida et al., 2007; Tung et al., 2015) cancer cells. The chemopreventive efect of selenium could be exerted by diferent molecular mechanisms such as: anti- oxidant protection, suppression of cell cycle, induction of apoptosis and structural modifcation of proteins (Fernandes, & Gandin, 2015). A previous study showed that 2 µg Se/g in a diet containing Se- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jf.2018.07.003 Received 18 May 2018; Received in revised form 28 June 2018; Accepted 1 July 2018 ⁎ Corresponding authors at: Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Centro de Biotecnología FEMSA, Av. Eugenio Garza Sada 2501 Sur, C.P. 64849 Monterrey, NL, Mexico (J.A. Gutiérrez-Uribe). E-mail addresses: jagu@itesm.mx (J.A. Gutiérrez-Uribe), sserna@itesm.mx (S.O. Serna Saldivar). Journal of Functional Foods 53 (2019) 76–84 1756-4646/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T