Abstract
Curcumin, a dietary pigment in turmeric, posseses anti-carcinogenic and anti-metastatic properties. The present study was conducted to studyin vitro chemopreventive effects of curcumin in transformed breast cells. Here, we show that curcumin inhibits H-ras-induced invasive phenotype in MCF10A human breast epithelial cells (H-ras MCF10A) and downregulates matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 dose-dependently. Curcumin exerted cytotoxic effect on H-ras MCF10A cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Curcumin-induced cell death was mainly due to apoptosis in which a prominent downregulation of Bcl-2 and upregulation of Bax were involved. We also suggest a possible involvement of caspase-3 in curcumin-induced apoptosis. Curcumin treatment resulted in the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in H-ras MCF10A cells. Apoptotic event by curcumin was significantly inhibited by pretreatment of an antioxidantN-acetyl-1-cysteine (NAC), suggesting redox signaling as a mechanism responsible for curcumin-induced apoptosis in H-ras MCF10A cells. Taken together, our results demonstrate that curcumin inhibits invasion and induces apoptosis, proving the chemopreventive potential of curcumin.
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Kim, MS., Kang, HJ. & Moon, A. Inhibition of Invasion and Induction of apoptosis by curcumin in H-ras-Transformed MCF10A human breast epithelial cells. Arch Pharm Res 24, 349–354 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02975105
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02975105