Teerakul Arpornsuwan, Sawang Petvises, Arthid Thim-uam, Atirada Boondech, and Sittiruk Roytrakul

pp. 45 - 51

Abstract

The in vitro effects of dichloromethane, methanol and hexane extracts of Carthamus tinctorius on caspase-dependent
anti-tumor activity against human colon carcinoma SW620 cell lines were investigated by MTT assay, Annexin V staining and
real-time RT-PCR. In addition, the immunomodulatory activity of each solvent extract was examined by determination of
lymphocyte proliferation using flow cytometry. Only dichloromethane extract of C. tinctorius exhibited the inhibitory effect on
growth of SW620 cells with IC₅₀ of 0.15 mg/ml, respectively, in comparison to the Hep2 (0.5 mg/ml) and control BHK cells (0.6
mg/ml). Moreover, it was associated with up-regulation of caspase 3, 7 and 9 and down regulation of Bcl2 transcripts in treated
SW620 cell. The dichloromethane extract showed the highest stimulatory effect on the lymphocyte proliferation with an
increase of 8±1.6 fold, followed by the methanol and hexane extract with increases of 12±1.1 and 14±1.6 fold, respectively.