Proliferation Inhibition and Apoptosis Induction of Fig Fruit Latex on Human Cancer Cells

To investigate the effect of fig fruit latex(FFL) on the proliferation of human cancer cells and to elucidate the mechanism of its activity,human glioblastoma,hepatocellular carcinoma and normal liver cells were tested in vitro for cytotoxicity,colony formation inhibition,Brdu incorporation,AO/EB apoptotic cell staining,and cell cycle distribution through flow cytometry after treatment with FFL.After FFL treatment,the proliferation,colony formation and Brdu labeling indices of cancer cells decreased(P0.05);AO/EB stained apoptotic cells increased(P0.05).By FCM analysis,the apoptotic indices increased(P0.01),the cells increased in G0/G1 phase(P0.01)and decreased in S phase(P0.01).The findings in this experimental study suggest that FFL has cytotoxicity on some human cancer cells,but little effect on normal cells at certain concentration,and its mechanism of activity might be associated with the inhibition of DNA synthesis of cancer cells,induction apoptosis and cell cycle arrest of cancer cells.