Abstract
Mountain ginseng has been used generally as a pharmacopuncture for cancer therapy in clinical practice in Northeast Asia. Nonetheless, there have been few scientific reports for the anticancer action of mountain ginseng. In this study, we investigated whether mountain ginseng extract (MGE) could inhibit the growth of breast cancer in in vitro and in vivo models. MGE showed stronger cytotoxicity than farm-cultivated ginseng extract (FGE) through promoting ROS generation. Also MGE dose-dependently brought about mitochondrial dysfunction in MCF-7 cells. In addition, MGE induced apoptosis through enhancing the activities of caspase-3/7 by regulation of expression of Bcl-2, Bax, cytochrome c, and cleaved caspase-3 in the MCF-7 cells. Consistent with the in vitro results, MGE significantly reduced tumor weights compared with FGE in mice transplanted with MCF-7 cells, and it regulated the expression of apoptosis-related proteins, such as Bcl-2, Bax, cytochrome c, cleaved caspase-3, and cleaved PARP, in the tumor tissues. Additionally, MGE included higher total ginsenoside contents than FGE. In conclusion, MGE, which is richer in ginsenosides, exerts a stronger anticancer action than FGE in breast cancer. The anticancer action of MGE may be closely correlated with caspase-mediated apoptosis through upregulating ROS generation. Therefore, these findings may be helpful for a clinical understanding of the anticancer mechanism of MGE for breast cancer patients.
Highlights
Ginseng, affiliated to the Araliaceae family, is a perennial plant, and it is mainly distributed in Korea, China, Japan, and North America [1]
To compare the effects of mountain ginseng extract (MGE) and farm-cultivated ginseng extract (FGE) on the cell viability of human breast cancer cells, we investigated the effects of MGE and FGE on the cell viability of MCF-7 cells
It has been known that the elevation of ROS generation in cancer cells is associated with apoptosis through mitochondrial dysfunction [15]. us, we further examined the effects of MGE and FGE on ROS generation and mitochondrial dysfunction in MCF-7 cells
Summary
Ginseng, affiliated to the Araliaceae family, is a perennial plant, and it is mainly distributed in Korea, China, Japan, and North America [1]. Korean ginseng has been widely used as a component of traditional medicine and in functional foods worldwide because it exerts many beneficial effects, such as antioxidant, anticancer, antidiabetes, anti-inflammation, and neuroprotection [2,3,4]. E beneficial effects of ginseng are closely associated with its bioactive components including ginsenosides, phenolic acids, flavonoids, and polysaccharides [2, 4]. Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers that develop in women, and it has the highest incidence and mortality rates in the world [6]. In Korea, the five-year survival rate of breast cancer patients has been the highest among those of other cancers, except for thyroid cancer [7]. The mortality rate of breast cancer patients has been steadily increasing since a statistical survey of cancer generation was conducted in 1999 [7] because the five-year survival rates of breast cancer patients
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