Anticancer effect of 2,7-dihydroxy-3-methylanthraquinone on human gastric cancer SGC-7901 cells in vitro and in vivo

AbstractContext: 2,7-Dihydroxy-3-methylanthraquinone (DDMN) is reported to have a remarkable anticancer activity against gastric cancer SGC-7901 cells.Objective: The objective of this study is to study the anticancer effect and mechanism of DDMN on SGC-7901 cells.Materials and methods: The MTT assay was used to determine the effect of DDMN on cell viability of SGC-7901 cells, and the cytotoxic effect was evaluated by the IC50 value. After treatment with different doses of DDMN (10, 20, and 40 μM) for 48 h, flow cytometry was used to investigate the apoptosis of SGC-7901 cells induced by DDMN. Further, western blotting was performed to study anticancer mechanism by assaying apoptosis-related proteins containing Mcl-1, Bcl-xl, Bcl-2, Bax, Bak, Bad, cytochrome c, caspase-3, and caspase-9. Finally, xenograft assay was used to further evaluate the effect of DDMN on SGC-7901 cells by determining body weight of nude mice, tumor volumes, and apoptosis-related proteins.Results: These results suggest that DDMN can ...