Abstract
Maslinic acid (MA) is a natural triterpene from Olea europaea L. with multiple biological properties. The aim of the present study was to examine MA’s effect on cell viability (by the MTT assay), reactive oxygen species (ROS levels, by flow cytometry) and key antioxidant enzyme activities (by spectrophotometry) in murine skin melanoma (B16F10) cells compared to those on healthy cells (A10). MA induced cytotoxic effects in cancer cells (IC50 42 µM), whereas no effect was found in A10 cells treated with MA (up to 210 µM). In order to produce a stress situation in cells, 0.15 mM H2O2 was added. Under stressful conditions, MA protected both cell lines against oxidative damage, decreasing intracellular ROS, which were higher in B16F10 than in A10 cells. The treatment with H2O2 and without MA produced different responses in antioxidant enzyme activities depending on the cell line. In A10 cells, all the enzymes were up-regulated, but in B16F10 cells, only superoxide dismutase, glutathione S-transferase and glutathione peroxidase increased their activities. MA restored the enzyme activities to levels similar to those in the control group in both cell lines, highlighting that in A10 cells, the highest MA doses induced values lower than control. Overall, these findings demonstrate the great antioxidant capacity of MA.
Highlights
An imbalance between pro-oxidant and antioxidant molecules can lead to an oxidative stress situation that modifies normal cell physiology due to protein, lipid, carbohydrate and nucleic acid damage [1]
We evaluated maslinic acid (MA)’s effect on B16F10 melanoma and A10 cell line proliferation using the MTT
The percentage of living cells decreased as the dose of MA increased in cancer cells (B16F10), while in healthy cells (A10), MA did not produce any cytotoxic effect, even at the highest doses used (210 μM)
Summary
An imbalance between pro-oxidant and antioxidant molecules can lead to an oxidative stress situation that modifies normal cell physiology due to protein, lipid, carbohydrate and nucleic acid damage [1]. Under a normal physiological situation, an antioxidant defense system neutralizes ROS. This antioxidant system involves enzymes such as catalase (CAT), which reduces hydrogen peroxide; superoxide dismutase (SOD), which detoxifies the superoxide radical; glutathione peroxidase (GPX), which reduces hydrogen peroxide and other organic peroxides; S-transferase glutathione (GST), which detoxifies harmful molecules; glutathione reductase (GR), which regenerates glutathione (GSH) from its oxidized form (GSSG) by an NADPH-dependent pathway; and G6PDH, which produces NADPH for GR’s mechanism
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