Detailed studies on the anticancer action of rosmarinic acid in human Hep-G2 liver carcinoma cells: evaluating its effects on cellular apoptosis, caspase activation and suppression of cell migration and invasion.
2020
PURPOSE Liver cancer is one of the most common and highly malignant cancers of the digestive system. The main aim of the present research work was to investigate the anticancer action of rosmarinic acid - a naturally occurring plant secondary metabolite. We also investigated its effects on cell apoptosis, caspase activation, cell migration and cell invasion. METHODS Cell viability of Hep-G2 liver cancer cells was evaluated by CCK-8 assay while apoptotic studies were carried out by fluorescence microscopy using Hoechst, acridine orange (AO)/ethidium bromide (EB) and Comet assays as well as using annexin-v/propidium iodide (PI) assay for apoptosis quantification. Western blot assay was used to study the effects of rosmarinic acid on apoptosis-related protein expressions including Bax, Bcl-2 and various caspases. In vitro wound healing assay was used to evaluate the effects on cell migration while transwell chambers assay with Matrigel was used to assess the effects of rosmarinic acid on cell invasion. RESULTS Rosmarinic acid caused significant reduction in the viability of the human Hep-G2 liver carcinoma cells in a dose-dependent manner, exhibiting an IC50 of 14 µM in cancer cells. The AO/EB staining assay showed that rosmarinic acid suppressed the viability of cancer cells via induction of apoptotic cell death which was associated with rise in Bax and decrease in Bcl-2 levels. DAPI staining results also confirmed that rosmarinic acid induced apoptosis. The apoptotic cells increased from 5.8% in control to 24.68% at 28 µM concentration of rosmarinic acid. Rosmarinic acid also caused activation of caspase-3 and 9 along with suppressing liver cancer cell migration and invasion. CONCLUSIONS The current study shows that rosmarinic acid has a potential to inhibit in vitro cancer cell growth in Hep-G2 cells by triggering apoptosis, caspase activation and suppressing cell migration and invasion and as such this molecule could be developed as a possible anticancer agent provided further studies are carried out.
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