The Effects of Seaweed Gracilaria arcuata Extract on the Stimulation of Apoptosis in Colorectal Cancer Cell Lines

niversity, Chabahar, Iran ,
Abstract: (67 Views) The most common problems in the medical sciences is resistance of cancer cells to anticancer drugs. Thus, finding new anti-cancer agents with minimal side effects seem necessary. In this regard, different studies on different marine algae are reported. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the algae Gracilaria arcuata extract on the stimulation of apoptosis in colorectal cancer cell lines and the effects on cell DNA fragmentation. This study was conducted as an In vitro study. The anticancer effects of aqueous and organic extracts of algae were tested by the MTT Assay, Trypan blue staining, apoptosis by flow cytometry and DNA fragmentation assay methods. The results of this study imply that the anti-cancer properties tested by MTT and Trypan blue assay, showed that methanol extract of Gracilaria arcuata with 44.45 ± 0.91 µg/mL concentration had the maximum effect on cancer cell death and the minimum effect was seen in the hexane (70.22 ± 1.22 µg/mL) and ethyl acetate extracts (70.55 ± 2.67 µg/mL), respectively (p <0.05). Results of trypan blue test confirmed the results of the MTT test, but the survival rate were different. To determine the effect of the algae methanol extract, cell apoptosis was assayed by two methods of flow cytometry and DNA fragmentation. Algae extracts of Gracilaria arcuata have LC50 in the concentration of 1010.16 µg/mL and apoptosis of 7.5 percent, which showed little apoptotic effect. The results show that the algae Gracilaria arcuata extract had anticancer effects against colorectal cancer cell lines, but additional studies of the chemical structure of bioactive compounds are needed