Cytotoxic impacts of escin via inducing apoptosis and morphological changes on human prostate cancer cells

Abstract

Prostate cancer is one of the most prevalent cancer types in males with a percentages of 28% worldwide. Thiscancer type comprises approximately 37% of the cancer incidences in males in Turkey. Recent cancer investigations arefocused on natural agents with good potent for cancer therapy. Escin is one of the most investigated agents of that kindbut its effects on human prostate cancer cell’s morphology is not investigated in detail, yet. Thus, the aim of this studyis to investigate the antiproliferative, cytotoxic and proapoptotic effects of escin, on prostate cancer cells Du-145.Cytotoxicity of escin on prostate cancer cells was intestigated by using sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay and viabilitypercentages and IC50 value were detected from the elisa reader (BioTek Synergy HTX) results. For morphologicalchanges, Du-145 cells treated with the IC50 value of escin were evaluated under a confocal microscope (Leica, TCS SP5II, Germany). Apoptosis profiles of cells were investigated by flow cytometry. According to the SRB findings escinreduced the viability of prostate cancer cells in dose-dependent manner and the IC50 value was detected as 30.48 µM for24 hours. On the confocal microscopy results it was confirmed that escin significantly changed the morphology of thetreated cells as disintegrated and deformed nuclei, chromatin condensation, fragmentations in the cytoskeleton alsoshrinkage of prostate cells. Annexin-V technique indicated the apoptotic cell death trigered by escin in Du-145 cells.Based on the study results, it was concluded that escin changed the morphology of prostate cancer cells and inducedapoptosis on prostate cancer cells.