Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester Induces Apoptosis Of Colon Cancer Cells HT-29by Inhibiting FAK/ERK Signal Transduction Pathway

Objective: To explore the effects of caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) onexpression of the related proteins in focal adhesion kinase (FAK)-extracellularsignal-regulated kinase (ERK) signal transduction pathway in colon cancer cell lineHT-29, to find the targets and to elucidate the anti-tumor mechanism of CAPE.Methods: The cells of human colon cancer cell line HT-29were treated with10μg/ml CAPE and at different concentrations0,2.5,5.0,7.5and10μg/ml.Hoechst33258staining were used to detect apoptosis. Western-blot analysis was usedto evaluate the protein level of FAK and ERK in HT-29cells treated by CAPE.Results: Hoechst33258staining showed that the chromatine concentration andapoptotic cells with high concentrations and the number increased after the treatmentof CAPE; Western-blot analysis showed that the expression of FAK and ERK proteinin HT-29cells was down-regulated with the increase of CAPE concentrations from0to10μg/ml, It is significant difference compared with control group(p<0.01).Conclusions:1. CAPE can induce the apoptosis of the colon cancer cell lineHT-29.2. The mechanism of CAPE is to suppress FAK-ERK signal transductionpathway activation and down-regulation of the expression of the related proteins.