Abstract

CELL PROLIFERATION STUDIES ON HUMAN BREAST CANCER CELLS (MCF-7 AND MDA-MB231) USING CURCUMIN

Anitha Joice*, P. Senthilkumaar and J. Manju Bashini

Abstract

Curcumin, a major yellow pigment and spice in turmeric and curry, is a powerful anti-cancer agent. The anti-tumour activities of curcumin include inhibition of tumour proliferation, angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis, induction of tumour apoptosis, increase of chemotherapy sensitivity, and regulation of cell cycle and cancer stem cell, indicating that curcumin maybe a strong therapeutic potential through modulating various cancer progression. It has been reported that the anticancer effect of Curcumin against human breast cancer cell line through Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) assay and colony forming assay. Different concentrations (1, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 μg/ml) of Curcumin were used. In PCNA assay, curcumin slows cancer cell proliferation and in colony forming study, colonies were stained with crystal violet and the number of clones in a given area was counted for each condition. This study witnessed that higher concentration of the curcumin gave a good results against cancer cell lines.

Keywords: Breast cancer cell lines, curcumin, PCNA assay, colony formation.