Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Its prevalence is increasing in many countries. Plant products can be used to protect against cancer due to natural anticancer and chemopreventive constituents. Strobilanthes crispus is one of plants with potential chemopreventive ability.
Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the anticancer effects of Strobilanthes crispus juice on hepatocellular carcinoma cells.
Materials and methods: MTT assays, flow cytometry, comet assays and the reverse transcription- polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used to determine the effects of juice on DNA damage and cancer cell numbers.
Results: This juice induced apoptosis after exposure of the HepG2 cell line for 72 h. High percentages of apoptotic cell death and DNA damage were seen at the juice concentrations above 0.1%. It was found that the juice was not toxic for normal cells. In addition, juice exposure increased the expression level of c-myc gene and reduced the expression level of c-fos and c-erbB2 genes in HepG2 cells. The cytotoxic effects of juice on abnormal cells were in dose dependent.
Conclusions: It was concluded that the Strobilanthes crispus juice may have chemopreventive effects on hepatocellular carcinoma cells.