In vitro cytotoxic and apoptotic activity of four Persian medicine plants on human leukemia and lymphoma cells

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the cytotoxic and apoptotic activity of Ferulago angulata, Echinophora platyloba, Salvia officinalis and Chelidonium majus on leukemia and lymphoma cell lines, non-Hodgkin's B-cell lymphoma (Raji), human leukemic monocyte lymphoma (U937), human acute myelocytic leukemia (KG-1A) cell lines and peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Methods: Cytotoxicity was determined by the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Cell viability assay was done using trypan blue exclusion experiments and cell death was identified as apoptosis using death detection ELISA. Results: Our results demonstrated that the extracts dose and time dependently suppressed the proliferation of three leukemia and lymphoma tumor cell lines (KG-1A, U937 and Raji) with ascending order of IC50 values, while peripheral blood mononuclear cells were not significantly affected. Nucleosome productions in apoptotic KG-1A, U937, and Raji cells were significantly augmented in a time-dependent manner and paralleled the anti-proliferative activity of the extracts. Conclusions: The extracts were found to time- and dose-dependently inhibit the proliferation of KG-1A, U937, and Raji cells possibly via an apoptosis-dependent pathway. é 2014 Asian Pacific Tropical Medicine Press.