CYTOTOXIC EFFECTS OF BIXA ORELLANA BARK EXTRACTS ON HUMAN CELL LINE (HEPG2 CELLS)

Abstract

Introduction: Bixaorellanais a species of tree in the family Bixaceae. The common usage of Bixaorellana include antipyretic, aphrodisiac, anti diarrhoeal, antidiabetic and insect repellant. HepG2 is an immortal cell line used as a model system for studies of liver metabolism and toxicity of xenobiotics, detection of environmental and dietary cytotoxic and genotoxic agents, understanding hepatocarcinogenesis and for drug targeting studies. The main aim of this study is to prepare Bixaorellana bark extract and to determine the cytotoxic effects of the extract on HepG2 cell line.
Materials and Methods: The Bixaorellana bark extract was made using Soxhlet extraction and concentrated using Rotary evaporator. The cell viability of HepG2 cells was measured using MTT Assay. Then the gene expression analysis of the HepG2 cells was done by RNA isolation, complementary DNA synthesis followed by Real time PCR to analyze the anticancer activity.
Results: As the concentration level increases, the cell viability dose dependently decreases. By modulating the expression of apoptotic signaling molecules, the drug was able to inhibit the proliferation of the cancer cells.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated that bark extracts of Bixaorellanawere cytotoxic against BCl 2 mRNA and BCl-xL mRNA induced apoptosis on the human cells. Active components were probably responsible for anticancer activity. MTT assay showed that as the concentration of treated Bixaorellana bark extract increases, the cancer cell viability decreases.