The Cytotoxic Effects of Testosterone on Gastric Cancer Cell Line (AGS) and Evaluation of Caspase-3, -8, and -9 Activity

Various studies have shown that sex steroids affect cancer cells at cellular and molecular level. In this study, the anti-proliferation effects of testosterone, was investigated on gastric cancer cell line (AGS) and activity level of caspase-3, -8 and -9, was evaluated.
  In this laboratory experimental study, AGS cell line, were randomly divided into control group (no exposure to hormone) and groups received testosterone (at concentrations 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1, and 10mg/ml). The cytotoxic effect of the extract was measured using MTT assay method. Caspase-3, -8 and -9 activity level was also evaluated using ELISA method. The data were statistically analyzed between groups using one way ANOVA and student’s t-test.
  Testosterone at the concentrations of 0.1 and 1mg/mL significantly reduced the viability of AGS cells compared to the control group (p<0.001). Exposure of gastric cancer cells to 1mg/mL of testosterone significantly increased the activity level of caspase-3 (p<0.001) and -9 (p<0.05) as compared to the control group, but caused no significant change in the activity level of caspase-8. The findings of this study showed that testosterone can exert cytotoxic effects on AGS cell line, which this effect is at least partly mediated by caspase-3 and -9.