Quantitative measurement of Bax and Bcl2 genes and protein expression in MCF7 cell-line when treated by Aloe Vera extract

Abstract

Plants always regarded interesting as potential sources of therapeutic agents. Identification of plant ingredients is among the most important research activities worldwide. In this study, Aloe Vera (Aloe barbadensis) extract owing to its low cost and high oral intake possibility is selected to treat breast cancer cell line MCF-7. The MTT test was conducted to evaluate the inhibitory effect of Aloe Vera on the metabolic activity of MCF-7 cells. To evaluate the effect of Aloe Vera on cancer cells apoptosis, the real-time polymerase chain reaction and to identify the protein, Western blot technique were used to assess to protein Bax and Bcl2 at pre-translational and post-translational level. The results of this study demonstrate that Aloe Vera increased Bax expression and decreased bcl-2 expression and inhibited the metabolic activity of MCF-7 cell line in a dose and time dependent manner and induced apoptosis in these cells. Results indicated that the treatment of MCF7 cells with the hydro-alcoholic extract of Aloe Vera and Tamoxifen induced the apoptosis in cells; hence, the herbal extract can be useful in cancer treatment and be used as an adjuvant medicinal agent.