Glehnia littoralis Root Extract Induces G0/G1 Phase Cell Cycle Arrest in the MCF-7 Human Breast Cancer Cell Line.

Joseph Flores de la Cruz,Yura Cho,Hee Ok Hong,Emil Joseph Sanvictores Vergara,Seong Gu Hwang,Baatartsogt Oyungerel

doi:10.7314/apjcp.2015.16.18.8113

Joseph Flores de la Cruz, Yura Cho + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.7314/apjcp.2015.16.18.8113

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Abstract

Glehnia littoralis (GL) is widely used as an oriental medicine for cough, fever, stroke and other disease conditions. However, the anti-cancer properties of GL on MCF-7 human breast cancer cells have not been investigated. In order to elucidate anti-cancer properties and underlying cell death mechanisms, MCF-7cells (5 X 104/well) were treated with Glehnia littoralis root extract at 0-400 ug/ml. A hot water extract of GL root inhibited the proliferation of MCF-7 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Analysis of the cell cycle after treatment of MCF-7 cells with increasing concentrations of GL root extract for 24 hours showed significant cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase. RT-PCR and Western blot analysis both revealed that GL root extract significantly increased the expression of p21 and p27 with an accompanyingdecrease in both CDK4 and cyclin D1. Our reuslts indicated that GL root extract arrested the proliferation of MCF-7 cells in G1 phase through inhibition of CDK4 and cyclin D1 via increased induction of p21 and p27. In summary, the current study showed that GL could serve as a potential source of chemotherapeutic or chemopreventative agents against human breast cancer.

Highlights

Glehnia littoralis is a perennial herb that grows in the coastal areas of Northern Pacific countries (Kong et al, 2010; Kong and Yuan, 2010; Taesook et al, 2010; Young et al, 2010) and is used as traditional medicine in East Asian countries like China, Japan and Korea (Kong and Yuan, 2008; Taesook et al, 2010; Yoon et al, 2010)
The anticancer potential of Glehnia littoralis root extract has been proven in past studies, its effect on the proliferation of MCF-7 human breast cancer cell line and its mechanism of action has not yet been determined
Flow cytometry analysis has shown that the extract induces both a dose dependent increase in the percentage of cells in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle accompanied by a dose-dependent decrease in the percentage of cells in the S (DNA synthesis) phase

Summary

Introduction

Glehnia littoralis is a perennial herb that grows in the coastal areas of Northern Pacific countries (Kong et al, 2010; Kong and Yuan, 2010; Taesook et al, 2010; Young et al, 2010) and is used as traditional medicine in East Asian countries like China, Japan and Korea (Kong and Yuan, 2008; Taesook et al, 2010; Yoon et al, 2010). In folkloric medicine the dried roots and rhizomes of this plant are used as antipyretic, analgesic, diaphoretic, anti-inflammatory, antihypertensive and anticancer agents (Kong and Yuan, 2008; Hwang et al, 2010; Kong et al, 2010; Lee et al, 2014). Several researches have already been done on this plant and it has been reported to possess antioxidant (Hwang et al, 2010) and anti-inflammatory (Taaesook et al, 2010, Lee et al, 2014) activities. Analysis of the roots showed that compounds such as furanocoumarin, polyacetylene, flavonoid, lignin, monoterpenoid glycoside and pyranocoumarins to be present (Lee et al, 2014). Coumarins and polyacetylenes were shown in a study to be partly responsible for the anti-proliferative effects shown by crude extracts of this plant (Kong et al, 2010)

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