Figure 1.

Flaxseed consumption suppresses NNK-induced lung tumor development in an A/J mouse model. A, Schematic representation of the experimental design. A/J mice were injected intraperitoneally with NNK (50 mg/kg) once a week for 4-weeks. After the first NNK injection, control mice were fed the basal-AIN-93G diet and treatment mice were fed AIN-93G supplemented with 10% flaxseed. B, The average body weight (g) ± standard deviation for control and 10% flaxseed-fed mice are shown monthly for the duration of the study. C, Food consumption (g) over the course of a month was recorded for each group of mice, and error bars represent ± standard deviation of monthly food consumption. D, The average lung weight (g) for control and flaxseed-fed mice was deteremined, and error bars represent ± standard deviation of the lung weight for each group. E, Representative images from three control-fed and three flaxseed-fed mice showing surface lung tumor nodules. F, The number of surface tumor nodules per lung was counted by 4 independent observers and averaged per mouse lung for the control and 10% flaxseed-fed animals. Error bars represent ± standard deviation for tumor number. G, Representative images for H&E-stained lung tissue sections obtained from control or flaxseed-fed animals. H, The number of lung tumor nodules per lung from H&E cross-section images. Data represent mean ± standard deviation. I, Tumor morphometry data from H&E-stained lung tissue sections to analyze tumor burden in control and 10% flaxseed group mice (n=4/group). Statistically significant differences are denoted with *, p ≤ 0.05.