Chemo-sensitization Effects And Its Mechanisms Study Of Curcumin On Human Adenocarcinoma Cell Line A549

ObjectiveCurcumin is a natural yellow pigment isolated from the rhizome of curcuma longa L, which could inhibit the proliferation and induce the apoptosis of many tumor cells. Cisplatin is a basal drug of chemotherapy for the lung cancer treatment. Whether curcumin can enhance the anti-carcinogenic effect of cisplatin is very important. Mitochondria is an important organelle in eucaryotic cells. Known as the power houses of cells, mitochondria play an important role in inducing the apoptosis of cells. As the only extrachromosomal DNA, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been shown to play a central role in oxidative phosphorylation and adenosine triphosphate synthesis, which decide the activities of cells. In order to explore the possible mechanism and offer experimental evidence of anticancer effect of curcuma combined with cisplatin, we investigated the anti-proliferation effect of curcumin combined with cisplatin on the human lung cancer cell line A549 and its correlation with the expression of apoptosis related genes and mtDNA genes.MethodMTT was used to measure the inhibitory effect of curcumin and cisplatin . Apoptotic rates of A549 cells were determined by flow cytometry (FCM).The morphological change of A549 cells were detected by inversion microscope and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The expression of mtDNA genes and apoptosis related genes were examined with the mtDNA oligonucleotide microarray.Results1. Curcumin and cisplatin inhibited the growth of the human lung cancer cell line A549 in a dose- and time- dependent manner, their half inhibiting concentration (IC50 ) were 18.40μmol/L,0.966μg/ml respectively.2.Compared with either curcumin or cisplatin alone, combining cisplatin at 1μg/ml,2μg/ml with curcumin at 10μmol/L,15μmol/L,20μmol/L respectively increased the growth inhibition rate of A549 cells (P <0.05) significantly. These results suggested additive actions of the two drugs.