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Anti-angiogenic properties of carnosol and carnosic acid, two major dietary compounds from rosemary

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Abstract

Background

The use of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) leaves and their constituents as a source of dietary antioxidants and flavoring agents is continuously growing. Carnosol and carnosic acid, two major components of rosemary extracts, have shown activity for cancer prevention and therapy.

Aim of the study

In this study, we investigate the cytotoxic and anti-angiogenic activities of carnosol and carnosic acid, in order to get further insight into their mechanism of action.

Results

Our results demonstrate that the mentioned diterpenes inhibit certain functions of endothelial cells, namely, differentiation, proliferation, migration and proteolytic capability. Our data indicate that their growth inhibitory effect, exerted on proliferative endothelial and tumor cells, could be due to, at least in part, an induction of apoptosis. Inhibition of the mentioned essential steps of in vitro angiogenesis agrees with the observed inhibition of the in vivo angiogenesis, substantiated by using the chick chorioallantoic membrane assay.

Conclusions

The anti-angiogenic activity of carnosol and carnosic acid could contribute to the chemopreventive, antitumoral and antimetastatic activities of rosemary extracts and suggests their potential in the treatment of other angiogenesis-related malignancies.

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Acknowledgments

Melissa García is recipient of a predoctoral FPU grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Authors are indebted to Ramón Muñoz-Chápuli for his helpful advices in the CAM assay and to Cristina Zafra for her preliminary works with rosemary compounds. This work was supported by grants PS09/02216 and TRACE PT2008-0145 (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, ISCIII and FEDER), Fundación Ramón Areces and PIE CTS-3759 (Andalusian Government and FEDER). The “CIBER de Enfermedades Raras” is an initiative from the ISCIII (Spain). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors state no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Málaga, 29071, Málaga, Spain

    Auxiliadora López-Jiménez, Melissa García-Caballero, Miguel Ángel Medina & Ana R. Quesada

  2. Unidad 741 de CIBER “de Enfermedades Raras”, 29071, Málaga, Spain

    Auxiliadora López-Jiménez, Melissa García-Caballero, Miguel Ángel Medina & Ana R. Quesada

Authors
  1. Auxiliadora López-Jiménez
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  2. Melissa García-Caballero
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  3. Miguel Ángel Medina
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  4. Ana R. Quesada
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ana R. Quesada.

Additional information

Auxiliadora López-Jiménez and Melissa García-Caballero contributed equally to this work.

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López-Jiménez, A., García-Caballero, M., Medina, M.Á. et al. Anti-angiogenic properties of carnosol and carnosic acid, two major dietary compounds from rosemary. Eur J Nutr 52, 85–95 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-011-0289-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-011-0289-x

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