Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has a variety of biological activities such as affecting immune function and preventing obesity, diabetes and atherosclerosis. It also has the effect of inhibiting tumors, such as delaying skin cancer, promoting the apoptosis of human breast cancer and prostate cancer cells.The research progress of the mechanism of CLA on inhibiting tumor in recent years was reviewed, including the regulation of eicosanoid metabolism to affect cancer cell apoptosis (endoplasmic pathway), as a ligand activating peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) to regulate cell differentiation and metabolism (nuclear pathway), and inducing cancer cells to produce endoplasmic reticulum stress pathways to regulate cell metabolism, the safety of CLA and the anti-tumor effect of special derivatives of CLA were also reviewed, in order to provide basic information for the comprehensive utilization of CLA as a cancer suppressing additive. |