Antitumor effects of crocin on human breast cancer cells

作者:Lu, Pengwei; Lin, Huan; Gu, Yuanting*; Li, Lin; Guo, Hong; Wang, Fang; Qiu, Xinguang
来源:International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, 2015, 8(11): 20316-20322.

摘要

Crocin is a chemical extracted from saffron and it is the most important kind of pigment of saffron. It has been proposed as a promising candidate for cancer prevention. In this study, we investigate the growth inhibition and the apoptosis of MCF-7 cells induced by Crocin, and explore the underlying molecular mechanism. We found that Crocin can significantly inhibit the proliferation of MCF-7 cells, and induce their apoptosis through mitochondrial signaling pathways including the activation of Caspase-8, upregulation of Bax, the disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and the release of cytochrome c. The studies showed that Crocin induced apoptosis of MCF-7 cells partially through caspase-8 mediated mitochondrial pathway. Therefore, we postulate that Crocin might have cancer-preventive and cancer-therapeutic benefit for human breast cancer.