diet-disease-link
The diet-disease link examines how the nutritional composition of food — including plant-derived compounds such as phytochemicals, fiber, and micronutrients — influences the onset and progression of chronic diseases in humans and animals. For plant scientists, understanding this connection drives research into breeding and engineering crops with enhanced nutritional profiles, optimizing secondary metabolite production, and identifying bioactive compounds that confer health benefits. This field bridges agronomy, biochemistry, and human health, making it central to developing functional foods and evidence-based dietary recommendations rooted in plant biology.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-05-01
This review explains how excess body fat and poor diet drive endometrial cancer by disrupting hormone levels, insulin signaling, and inflammation — a convergence of metabolic failures that reprograms cells toward uncontrolled growth.
Aromatase enzymes in enlarged fat cells convert androgens into estradiol, directly fueling estrogen-receptor-driven cell proliferation in the uterine lining.
Hyperinsulinemia and IGF-1 signaling independently activate PI3K/AKT/mTOR and RAS/MAPK pathways, accelerating cell division while suppressing tumor-suppressive checkpoints.
Obesity shifts adipokine balance — raising pro-inflammatory leptin/JAK2-STAT3 signaling and lowering protective adiponectin/AMPK signaling — promoting epithelial-mesenchymal transition and chronic inflammation.