Comparative analysis of the effect of chloroform extract of Gracilaria salicornia and Sargassum angostifolium on the MCF7 and MRC5 cell lines

The aim of this study was to compare the effects of chloroform extract of two types of red and brown algae on proliferation, cell cycle and induction of apoptosis in breast cancer cell line.

In this experimental study, MCF7 cancer cell line and normal MRC5 cell line were cultured and then the cells were treated with different concentrations of chloroform extract of algae for 48 hours. Cell survival percentage was calculated by MTT method and type of cell death and cell cycle arrest was assessed by flow cytometry. The results were evaluated by Prism software.

The results showed that both brown and red algae reduced the proliferation of MCF7 cancer line as a concentration-dependent pattern. The IC50 concentration was 88 μg/ml for brown algae chloroform extract and 107 μg/ml for red algae. These values indicated more inhibitory effects of brown algae (63.31%) than red (58.33%). Also, these two extracts effectively induced apoptosis and stopped the cell cycle in G0/G1 stage.

This study showed that the chloroform extract of these algae can be considered as a strong inhibitor for breast cancer.