Possible Interaction: Beta Carotene and Lycopene

“Thus, oral supplementation with lycopene led to an enrichment of beta-carotene in human skin, possibly due to the fact that carotenoids act in the skin as protection chains, with a natural protection against free radicals.”

“Recent studies found … who took beta-carotene supplements orally had increases in their … of alpha-carotene and lycopene that were large (> 150% increase) and significantly greater than such increases in subjects who received placebo … that similar supplementation was associated with a decrease of approximately 37% in plasma lutein concentrations.”

“Ingestion of a combined dose of BC and lycopene resulted in a significant increase in serum concentrations of both BC and lycopene at 24 h (P < 0.05).”

“Although lycopene suppressed KB cell proliferation at the G(0)/G(1) phase with a significant decrease in PCNA expression, beta-carotene and lutein possessed less of an inhibitory effect and even exhibited elevated cell proliferation at the G(2)/M phase.”

“ beta-Carotene and lycopene were highly correlated with each other (r =0.744, P< 0.0001).”

“Similar interactive effects seen with lycopene were also observed with beta-carotene , but, however, to a lesser extent of synergism.”

“Among males with leukoplakia mean serum lycopene and beta-carotene levels (0.175+/-0.202, 0.357+/-0.295 micromol/l) were significantly lower than those of controls (0.257+/-0.252, 0.555+/-0.408 micromol/l) (P<0.05, P<0.005).”

“In conclusion, this study showed that lutein, but not lycopene , negatively affected beta-carotene absorption when given simultaneously with beta-carotene but apparently had no effect on beta-carotene cleavage.”

“These results suggest that differences may exist between beta-carotene and lycopene in their intestinal absorption, plasma transport, or tissue metabolism.”

“Cell cycle analysis revealed that beta-carotene induced an increase of the cells in S and G2/M phases; furthermore, lycopene increased the proportion of these cells in G0/G1 while decreasing the S and G2/M phases.”