[Effect of arecoline on proliferation and apoptosis of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells].

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of arecoline on proliferation and apoptosis of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells and to ex-plore its possible mechanism. METHODS: Human breast cancer MCF-7 cells were treated with arecoline at the concentrations of 0,10,30,50, 100,300,500µmol/L, the cell proliferation were detected by MTT assay, cell apoptosis were analyzed by Hoechst 33342 staining and flow cy-tometry, the protein expression of Bax,Bcl-2 and P53 were detected by Western blot. RESULTS: Low concentration(0,10,30, 50 µmol/L) arecoline had no effect on the proliferation and apoptosis of MCF-7. However, high concentration(100,300,500µmol/L) arecoline inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis of MCF-7 cells in a concentration-dependent manner, arecoline also significantly increased P53 and Bax protein expression and decreased Bcl-2 protein expression. CONCLUSIONS: High concentration arecoline inhibited the proliferation and induced the apoptosis of MCF-7 cells, the mechanism was probably corrected with increasing P53 and Bax protein expression and decreasing Bcl-2 pro-tein expression.