Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the fourth cancer with the most new cases reported in 2018 worldwide. Consumption of fruit and vegetables is a protective factor against the risk of CRC. Beyond this, flavonoids could orchestrate these healthy effects. Apart from containing the typical apple flavonoids, red-fleshed apples also contain anthocyanins, mainly cyanidin-3-O-galactoside (Cy3Gal). Through an azoxymethane rat carcinogenesis model, a study was carried out in order to assess the possible protective effects of apple polyphenols, with special attention to anthocyanins. In addition, apart from negative and positive controls, a group with chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil (5FU) was included to compare their performance against the output collected from the animal treatments with white-fleshed apple (WF), red-fleshed apple (RF) and Cy3Gal (AE).

Although the 5FU group presented the best performance towards aberrant crypt foci (ACF) inhibition (70.1%), rats fed with white-fleshed apples ('Golden Smoothee') were able to achieve 41.3% ACF inhibition, while none of the challenged treatments (WF, RF and AE) suffered mucin depletion in their colonocytes. Expression changes of 17 genes related to CRC were assessed. In detail, the ACF inhibition phenotype detected in 5FU and WF groups could be explained through the expression changes detected in the apoptosis-related genes of Aurka, p53 and Cox2. Moreover, in the apple consumption groups (WF and RF), a reduced protein expression of matrix metalloproteinases with gelatinase activity (MMP-2 and 9) was detected.

Overall, our study suggests an effect of apple polyphenols and apple anthocyanin Cy3Gal against colon carcinogenesis, retarding/diminishing the appearance of the precancerous markers studied.

结直肠癌（CRC）是2018年全球报告的新病例中的第四种癌症。食用水果和蔬菜是预防CRC风险的保护因素。除此之外，类黄酮还可以协调这些健康的作用。除了含有典型的苹果类黄酮以外，红肉苹果还含有花青素，主要是花青素3- O-半乳糖苷（Cy3Gal）。通过甲氧甲烷大鼠致癌模型，进行了一项研究，以评估苹果多酚可能的保护作用，并特别注意花色苷。另外，除阴性和阳性对照外，还包括一个接受5-氟尿嘧啶（5FU）化疗的组，以比较其性能与从白肉苹果（WF），红肉苹果（RF）的动物治疗中收集的产出）和Cy3Gal（AE）。

尽管5FU组对隐窝病灶（ACF）的抑制表现最佳（70.1％），但喂食白肉苹果（``金冰沙''）的大鼠能够实现41.3％的ACF抑制，而没有任何挑战性的治疗方法（ WF，RF和AE）的结肠细胞粘蛋白耗竭。评估了与CRC相关的17个基因的表达变化。详细地，可以通过在Aurka，p53和Cox2的凋亡相关基因中检测到的表达变化来解释在5FU和WF组中检测到的ACF抑制表型。此外，在苹果食用组（WF和RF）中，检测到具有明胶酶活性的基质金属蛋白酶的蛋白表达降低（MMP-2和9）。

总体而言，我们的研究表明苹果多酚和苹果花色苷Cy3Gal对结肠癌的发生具有抑制/减少所研究的癌前标志物外观的作用。