Bowman-Birk inhibitors from legumes as colorectal chemopreventive agents

Figure 1 Bowman-Birk family in legumes. A: Homology model of TI1, a major pea Bowman-Birk inhibitor (BBI) isoinhibitor, showing the trypsin and chymotrypsin inhibitory domains[33]; B: Amino acid sequence deduced from the TI1 gene from the pea cultivar Birte. The sequence of both inhibitory domains are underlined and the positions of the seven disulphide bonds are indicated by connecting lines[39]. K and Y at position P₁(*) determines specificity for trypsin and chymotrypsin, respectively.

Figure 2 Effect of the major soybean isoinhibitors, IBBD2 and IBB1, on the in vitro growth of HT29 human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells. Growth media were supplemented with protein in the concentration range 0-62 μmol/L and cells harvested after a period of 96 h. Values are means, with standard deviations represented by vertical bars of at least three independent experiments, each having four technical replicates. ^aP < 0.05 vs IBBD2 group (Bonferroni´s test)[26].