Abstract
Crocetin is the main pharmacologically-active component of saffron and has been considered as a promising candidate for cancer chemoprevention. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the anticancer effects of crocetin and the possible mechanisms of these properties in the esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell line KYSE-150. The KYSE-150 cells were cultured in Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium and incubated with 0, 12.5, 25, 50, 100 or 200 μmol/l crocetin for 48 h. Cell proliferation was measured using an MTT assay. Hoechst 33258 staining and observation under fluorescent microscopy were used to analyze the proapoptotic effects of crocetin. The migration rate was assessed by a wound-healing assay. The cell cycle distribution was analyzed using flow cytometry analysis subsequent to propidium iodide staining. The expression of B-cell lymphoma-2-associated X protein (Bax) and cleaved caspase 3 was determined by western blot analysis. It was found that treatment of KYSE-150 cells with crocetin for 48 h significantly inhibited the proliferation of the cells in a concentration-dependent manner, and the inhibition of proliferation was associated with S phase arrest. Crocetin was also found to induce morphological changes and cell apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner through increased expression of proapoptotic Bax and activated caspase 3. In addition, crocetin suppressed the migration of KYSE-150 cells. The present study provides evidence that crocetin exerts a prominent chemopreventive effect against esophageal cancer through the inhibition of cell proliferation, migration and induction of apoptosis. These findings reveal that crocetin may be considered to be a promising future chemotherapeutic agent for esophageal cancer therapy.
Highlights
Esophageal cancer is one of the eight most common cancers and is the sixth leading cause of global cancer mortality
These findings reveal that crocetin may be considered to be a promising future chemotherapeutic agent for esophageal cancer therapy
An MTT assay was used to measure the inhibition of crocetin on KYSE‐150 cell proliferation
Summary
Esophageal cancer is one of the eight most common cancers and is the sixth leading cause of global cancer mortality. The major histological subtypes of esophageal cancer are adenocarcinoma (AC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) [2]. A notable belt of esophageal cancer occurrence, primarily SCC, extends from Northeast China to the Middle East [3]. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy demonstrate acute and chronic toxicities, which often results in a cessation of therapy, and a decrease in the quality life [8,9]. For these reasons, esophageal cancer exhibits a poor prognosis and the five‐year survival rate, subsequent to diagnosis, is
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