Anti-proliferative and Apoptosis Inducing Activity of Lactobacillus brevis OPK-3 Isolated from Kimchi on Leukemia Cell Lines

Abstract

In the present work we investigated the effects of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated from kimchi on prolifera-tion and apoptosis of cancer cells. The cell-free supernatant concentrate of Lactobacillus brevis OPK-3 significantly retar-ded the proliferation of human acute promyelocytic (HL60), human histiocytic (U937), and mouse lymphocytic (L1210)leukemia cell lines in vitro at concentrations over 2.25-9.0 mg/mL. The treatments of the concentrate leaded to the increasedapoptosis and decreased mitochondrial transmembrane potential in cultured U937 leukemia cell lines. In addition, the treat-ments of the concentrate showed the increased expression of p53 gene in cultured U937 and HL60 leukemia cell lines. Onthe other hand, the cell-free supernatant concentrate of control L. brevis strain (KCCM 41028) showed a relatively littleeffect on the cancer cell proliferation, apoptosis, and mitochondrial transmembrane potential at the similar concentrationranges compared with the L. brevis OPK-3 samples. These results suggest that the consumption of L. brevis OPK-3 could bebeneficial for the inhibitory action on leukemia cell proliferation and for the stimulatory action on the cancer cell apoptosis.