Cabbage and Sauerkraut Consumption in Adolescence and Adulthood and Breast Cancer Risk among US-Resident Polish Migrant Women

Background: Breast cancer (BC) incidence and mortality are lower in Poland than in the United States (US). However, Polish-born migrant women to US approach the higher BC mortality rates of US women. We evaluated the association between consumption of cabbage/sauerkraut foods and BC risk in Polish-born migrants to US. Methods: We conducted a case–control study of BC among Polish-born migrants in Cook County and the Detroit Metropolitan Area. Cases (n = 131) were 20–79 years old with histological/cytological confirmation of invasive BC. Population-based controls (n = 284) were frequency matched to cases on age and residence. Food frequency questionnaires assessed diet during adulthood and age 12–13 years. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated with conditional logistic regression. Consumption of total, raw/short-cooked, and long-cooked cabbage/sauerkraut foods was categorized as low, medium, or high (frequency of servings/week). Results: Higher consumption of total and raw/short-cooked cabbage/sauerkraut foods, during both adolescence and adulthood, was associated with a significantly lower BC risk. Consumption of long-cooked cabbage/sauerkraut foods was low and not significantly associated with risk. The multivariate OR for total cabbage/sauerkraut consumption, high vs. low (>4 vs. ≤2 servings/week) during adolescence was 0.36 (95% CI = 0.18–0.71, ptrend < 0.01) and 0.50 (95% CI = 0.23–1.06, ptrend = 0.08) during adulthood. For raw/short-cooked cabbage/sauerkraut (>3 vs. ≤1.5 servings/week), the ORs were 0.35 (95% CI = 0.16–0.72, ptrend < 0.01) during adolescence and 0.37 (95% CI = 0.17–0.78, ptrend < 0.01) during adulthood. For joint adolescent/adult consumption of raw/short-cooked cabbage/sauerkraut foods, (high, high) vs. (low, low), the OR was 0.23 (95% CI = 0.07–0.65). The significant association for high adolescent consumption of raw/short-cooked cabbage/sauerkraut foods and reduced BC risk was consistent across all levels of consumption in adulthood. Conclusion: Greater consumption of total and raw/short-cooked cabbage/sauerkraut foods either during adolescence or adulthood was associated with significantly reduced BC risk among Polish migrant women. These findings contribute to the growing literature suggesting a protective effect of a potentially modifiable factor, cruciferous vegetable intake, on breast cancer risk

A novel pathway of antigen presentation by dendritic and endothelial cells: Implications for allorecognition and infectious diseases

Dendritic cells (DCs) are the major antigen presenting cells capable of stimulating T cell responses following either organ transplantation or a viral infection. In the context of allorecognition, T cells can be activated following presentation of alloantigens by donor DCs (direct), as well as by recipient DCs presenting processed donor major histocompatibility complex (MHC) as peptides (indirect). We have recently described another mechanism by which alloreactive T cells are activated. Recipient DCs can acquire donor MHC through cell-to-cell contact and this acquired MHC can stimulate a T cell response (the semidirect pathway). Similarly, during a viral infection, DCs are capable of stimulating T cells directly, as occurs when infected DCs present processed viral antigens, or indirectly by a process known as cross-presentation. Although cross-presentation of exogenous antigen is an important mechanism for controlling infectious diseases, it is possible that peptide:MHC acquisition (the semidirect pathway) may also play a part in immunity against pathogens. In this review, we discuss the possible contributions of the semidirect pathway/MHC transfer in infectious disease