Effects of curcumin on anti-proliferation and expression of apoptosis interrelated gene of Human Osteosarcoma MG-63 Cells

Objective: To investigate the regulatory effect of curcumin on proliferation inhibition and apoptosis in human osterosarcoma MG-63 cells. Methods: MG-63 cells were treated by curcumin, and the inhibitory effect on cell proliferation was assessed by cell count. The apoptosis was inspected by fluorescent staining. The cell cycle analysis was detected by FCM. The expression level of genes related with apoptosis was observed by immunohistochemistry and western blotting immunoreaction. Results: The results showed that the cells growth was inhibited with the increasing of the concentration of curcumin and the elongation of the treated time,and the highest inhibition rate was 89.07%. Parts of cells presented the typical morphological changes of apoptosis: chromatin concerntrated and agglutinatied, cell nucleus shrinked and cataclased under the microscope. The results of FCM analysis showed that curcumin could in- duce cells into apoptosis, which was proved by the emergence of apoptotic peak. The results of immunoreaction suggested that the expression level of bcl-2 and P53 were down-regulated and the expression level of bax and Fas were upregulated. Conclusions: Curcumin not only inhibited cell proliferation but also induced apoptosis of MG-63 cells, which may be related to the ratio of the expression level of bcl-2 and bax as well as reception of the signal of stimulating apoptosis.