Effects of Chrysin plant flavonoid on proliferation and apoptosis of gastric cancer cell line (AGS)

Chrysin is a natural flavonoid antioxidant which its role in tumor cell death has been reported. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism of Chrysin effect on proliferation and apoptosis of gastric cancer cell line (AGS). Cells were cultured and treated with different concentrations of Chrysin (90, 80, 70, 60, 50 μM) for 48 h and evaluated for cell viability. To examine the cytotoxic effect of drug in inducing apoptosis, staining with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and propidium iodide (PI) was used. The cells were treated for 48 h with different concentrations of Chrysin (50 of 90 μM) and examined for the morphological changes. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Excel software were used for data analysis. Different concentrations of Chrysin significantly inhibited the growth and proliferation of AGS cells (p<0.05). The IC50 dose was determined to be 67.5±0.66. Apoptosis induced by 50 and 70 μM of Chrysin was significantly greater than in untreated cells (p<0.05). Cells treated with high concentration of Chrysin (90 μM) showed more prominent growth inhibition and cell shrinkage compared to cells treated with the lower concentrations of Chrysin. The results of this study showed that Chrysin effects on AGS cell line were significantly high and dose-dependent and might be helpful in the treatment of gastric cancer. Chrysin may therefore be considered a potential candidate for both cancer prevention and treatment. Further investigation is needed to validate the contribution of chrysin in tumor therapy in vivo.