The saffron effects on expression pattern of critical self-renewal genes in adenocarcinoma tumor cell line (AGS)

Abstracts Background The aim of the current study was to determine the effects of various concentrations of saffron distillate (Crocus sativus) on expression of some self-renewal genes including OCT4, KLF, SOX2, NANOG and Nucleostemin in AGS (gastric adenocarcinoma) cell line. Material and methods The AGS cells were cultured in RPMI1640 medium contained saffron (20, 40 and 100 μg/mL) for 24, 48 and 72 h. Inhibition of cell proliferation was assessed by MTT. The percentage of apoptotic cells was determined by flow cytometry analysis using Annexin V/PI apoptosis detection kit. Total cellular RNA extracted and subjected to and cDNA synthesis and then, the expression of the desired genes was extracted and subjected to in both the control and test groups, using real time- PCR (RT-PCR). Data were analyzed by student t and repeated measure tests. Differences were considered significant if (P  Findings There was a significant difference in cell viability, when various concentrations of saffron were used for 24, 48 and 72 h of incubation and apoptosis increased in a time-dependent manner. Flow cytometry results exhibited an obviously significant augmentation in apoptotic AGS cells. Real time- PCR our RT-PCR based findings indicated that saffron distillate has reduced the expression of OCT4, KLF, SOX2, NANOG and Nucleostemin genes in compare to untreated control cells. Conclusion According to the results of this study it may be concluded that saffron distillate can be considered as an inhibitor of cell division and regardingly inhibit cancer progression.