title: Effects of polygonum aviculare herbal extract on proliferation and apoptotic gene expression of MCF-7.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  One of the most common malignancies in women is breast cancer. Although several treatments for breast cancer are available, application of herbal medicine as a supplementary treatment is a new option to help curing the disease. In this study anticancer effects of Polygonum avicular herbal extract was investigated.
  
  
  METHODS
  Polygonum avicular extract was obtained by methanol. MCF-7 cell line was treated with different concentrations of Polygonum avicular (50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300,350 400 ng/µl) for different time lengths ( 6, 12, 24, and 48 hrs). MTT assay and Flow Cytometry were used to evaluate cell proliferation and apoptosis, respectively. RT-PCR was also carried out to evaluate the expression of apoptotic genes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results showed that Polygonum avicular induced cytotoxicity in MCF-7 cell line at concentrations higher than 300 ng/µl and this was confirmed by the highest rate of cell death as measured by Trypan Blue and MTT assays. RT-PCR results showed up-regulation of P53 and down-regulation of Bcl-2 proteins which implied the ability of Polygonum avicular to induce apoptosis in MCF-7 cells and confirmed its anticancer property. Further studies are required to evaluate effects of the extract on other apoptotic genes.
authors.affiliation: Research center, Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization, Tehran.
authors.forename: Roudkenar M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Habibi
authors.forename: Roushandeh A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Mohammadi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Delazar
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Halabian
authors.forename: Rad J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Soleimani
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mehdipour
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bagheri
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jahanian-Najafabadi