Salvia officinalis Induces Apoptosis in Mammary Carcinoma Cells Through Alteration of Bax to Bcl-2 Ratio

Abstract

Salvia officinalis L. (sage) is one of the herbal plants frequently used in traditional medicine. Anti carcinogenic property of sage extract and the fact that it does not show toxic effect on normal cells, make this extract a proper candidate for cancer therapy. In order to assess the molecular mechanism underlying sage anticancer properties, the effect of sage hydro alcoholic extract was investigated on mouse mammary carcinoma cell line (4T1). Cultured cells were treated with different concentrations (0–1000 μg/mL) of Salvia officinalis extract for 24 h. Decrease in cell viability and increase in chromatin condensation were observed in a dose-dependent manner following treatment with sage extract. Most cultured cells were in the early stages of apoptosis in 100 μg/mL and in the late stages of apoptosis in 500 μg/mL of the extract. While Bax expression was increased significantly at 500 μg/mL of sage extract, no significant change was observed in the levels of Bcl2 expression in different concentrations of the extract compared to non-treated control. Therefore, Salvia officinalis hydro alcoholic extract shows cytotoxic and proapoptotic properties on mouse mammary carcinoma cells. Moreover, it seems that the induction of apoptosis in those cells is through increased in the ratio of Bax/Bcl2 as an apoptotic index.