Abstract

Previous studies on human breast cancer patients showed a decline in circulating melatonin levels corresponding to primary tumor growth and an increase when relapse occurred. The aim of the current investigation was to study in an experimental model possible mechanisms involved. Inbred female F344 Fischer rats were used for serial passages derived from a chemically induced mammary adenocarcinoma. Animals with slow-growing carcinosarcomas at passage 2 showed a significant elevation of nocturnal urinary melatonin (23. 00-07.00 h; +50%, p < 0.05) and a nominal increase in plasma melatonin (+41%; 02.00-03.00 h). By contrast, these parameters were significantly depressed in animals with fast-growing sarcomas (urinary melatonin: -22%, p < 0.025; plasma melatonin: -56%, p < 0. 01). At passage 2 nocturnal pineal N-acetylserotonin (02.00-03.00 h) was significantly enhanced (+62%, p < 0.05) probably due to an increased activity of serotonin-N-acetyltransferase (SNAT, +45%), the rate-limiting step of pineal melatonin biosynthesis converting serotonin to N-acetylserotonin. The activation of SNAT may be due to a stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system (urinary noradrenaline; NA: +243%, p < 0.005) when the cellular immune system responded towards tumor growth (urinary biopterin, +214%, p < 0.005). At passage 12 SNAT and N-acetylserotonin were unaffected but a depletion of plasma tryptophan (-34%, p < 0.0001), the precursor amino acid of melatonin, was found. The marginal decline in pineal serotonin (-18%, p < 0.05) disputes that the drastic depletion in circulating melatonin (-56%, p < 0.01) can be exclusively explained by a reduced availability of tryptophan. Therefore, the involvement of an additional mechanism has to be postulated, such as a degradation of melatonin via indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase, an extrahepatic enzyme which has been detected in tumor tissue and is related to tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO). TDO occurs only in the liver, is highly specific for L-tryptophan and is induced by glucocorticoids which would account for the observed depletion of plasma tryptophan resulting from a tumor-associated activation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis (urinary corticosterone +208%, p < 0.01). These findings present first explanations for the previously observed modulation of melatonin levels in cancer patients but also illustrate the high degree of complexity of mechanisms involved in the interactions between tumor growth and the immunoneuroendocrine system.