Comparative Evaluation of Novel Putative Stem Cell Markers and Tumor Suppressor MicroRNAs in Barrett's Esophagus

Abstract

G A A b st ra ct s metabolic/growing activity of the cells was measured using a MTT assay. Results: NanoCurcumin was able to inhibit the metabolic activity of OE33 esophageal cancer cells in a dose dependent way, while metabolic activity decreased with prolonged incubation times (figure 1). It was observed that after 24h without pre-treatment with Nano-Curcumin, OE33 cells show a metabolic activity of 0.575±0.038. After 72h the metabolic activity was increased to 0.705±0.058, indicating that the cells are actively growing. Treating the cells for 48h with 10 μM leads to a decrease in metabolic activity to 0.504±0.013. Increasing the dose of Nano-Curcumin to 50 μM or 100 μM leads to a further decrease in metabolic activity to 0.468±0.037 and 0.360±0.010, respectively. Microscopic images also showed that NanoCurcumin induces cell death in OE33 cells. The OE33 cells that were not treated with Nano-Curcumin were confluent, while the treated cells are not. Large gaps between the treated cells are visible, and this phenomenon is more evident when cells are treated with a higher dose of Nano-Curcumin. Conclusion: Nano-Curcumin is able to downregulate the metabolic activity of OE33 cells. Future studies are aiming on determining the effect of Nano-Curcumin on primary cultures of patients with EAC and to determine the mechanism of action. This might lead to a succesful therapy using Nano-Curcumin for the treatment of EAC.