Effects of Curcumin on Proliferation Inhibition and the Expression of Notch-1,Bax and Bak in HaCaT Cells

Objective To investigate the mechanism of the anti-proliferation effects of curcumin on HaCaT cells.Methods The inverted microscope was used on morphology of HaCaT cells under different concentrations of curcumin.Growth inhibition rates of HaCaT cells were measured with MTT method.The expression of Notch-1,Bax and Bak protein were detected by western blot assay.Results Reasults of MTT showed that growth inhibition rates of HaCaT cells of 0.01μmol/L curcumin group has no difference compared to the control group(P0.05).After HaCaT cells were treated with curcumin(0.1μmol/L),cell growth was significantly inhibited in a dose-dependent manner(P0.05).The percentage of the apoptotic cells were significantly increased after the treatment(P0.05).Detection western blot showed that both the expression of Bax and inducing Bak were increased and Notch-1 was decreased.Conclusion Curcumin not only inhibits proferaation but also induces apoptosis of HaCaT cells.Initially,curcumin may play the role of inhibiting proliferation on HaCaT cells by reduceing the expression of Notch-1 receptor and apoptosis protein.