Special Water Stops Cancer Cell Growth in Laboratory Study
- Authors
- Kyoko Nakamura, Osamu Muraoka
- Journal
- Bioscience Trends
- Year
- 2017
- DOI
- 10.5582/bst.2017.01193
- Study Type
- Cell Culture
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- Japan
- Health Condition
- Cervical Cancer
- Body System
- Reproductive System
TL;DR
A special water created using carbon electrodes can stop the growth of cervical cancer cells without killing them.
Key Finding
Electrolyzed water produced with carbon electrodes slowed the growth of cervical cancer cells in lab cultures, with the strongest effect occurring at pH 3.0–3.5.
Summary
Researchers created electrolyzed water (water treated with electricity using carbon electrodes) and tested whether it could slow the growth of cervical cancer cells in a lab dish. They found that the electrolyzed water did slow cancer cell growth, especially when the water was very acidic (pH 3 to 3.5). The effect was reversible, meaning the cells could resume growing if the electrolyzed water was removed.
Practical Takeaway
This is an early laboratory study using cancer cells in a dish, not human testing. While the results are interesting, they cannot be applied to human health or hydrogen water consumption at this stage. Much more research—including animal studies and eventually human trials—would be needed before any conclusions about therapeutic use could be drawn.
Abstract
We developed electrolyzed water (EW) using carbon electrodes and investigated the ability of the developed EW to inhibit the proliferation of human cervical carcinoma HeLa cells. We observed that EW-containing media inhibited HeLa cell proliferation. Many very small black dots were produced in EW and these were associated with the inhibitory effect on the cell proliferation. Furthermore, the very small black dots that could inhibit cell proliferation were produced only at pH 3 to 3.5 of EW. Additional experiments showed that this inhibition of proliferation is reversible. These results suggest that the effect of EW on HeLa cells is cytostatic and not cytotoxic. Thus, our results indicate that the EW developed in this study may be used to inhibit cell proliretation.