Myricetin exhibits anti-glioma potential by inducing mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, inhibition of cell migration and ROS generation

• Published in: Journal of B.U. ON. Vol. 21; no. 1; p. 182
• Main Authors: Li, Hu-Guang, Chen, Jun-Xia, Xiong, Jun-Hui, Zhu, Jin-Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Greece 01.01.2016
• Subjects: Apoptosis - drug effects; Brain Neoplasms - drug therapy; Brain Neoplasms - metabolism; Brain Neoplasms - pathology; Caspases - physiology; Cell Cycle Checkpoints - drug effects; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Movement - drug effects; Flavonoids - pharmacology; Glioma - drug therapy; Glioma - metabolism; Glioma - pathology; Humans; Mitochondria - drug effects; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 - analysis; Reactive Oxygen Species - metabolism
• ISSN: 1107-0625

To study the antiproliferative effects of myricetin in human glioma U251 cells together with assessing its effects on cell cycle, apoptosis, apoptosis-related proteins, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and cell migration. Cell viability of human glioma cells after myricetin treatment was assessed by MTT assay. Phase-contrast and confocal fluorescence microscopies were used to assess the morphological changes that occured in these cells following myricetin treatment. Flow cytometry using propidium iodide (PI) and Annexin-V FITC as probes was employed to evaluate the effects on cell cycle arrest and apoptosis induction, respectively. The effect of myricetin on intracellular ROS production was measured by flow cytometry with a fluorescent probe CM-DCFH2-DA. Myricetin induced a dose-dependent as well as time-dependent growth inhibitory effect in U251 human glioma cells. Myricetin treatment resulted in U251 cells detachment from adjacent cells making clusters of cells floating in the medium. Detached cells had irregular shape and incapable to maintain their membranes intact. Apoptotic cell death was induced by myricetin treatment as witnessed by fluorescence microscopy. The percentage of early and late apoptotic cells increased from 0.41% and 8.2% to 23.1% and 10.2%, 25.2% and 19.4%, to finally 36.2% and 28.4% after treatment with 15 μM, 60 μM and 120 μM of myricetin, respectively. We also observed a dose-dependent increase in Bax and Bad levels and a dose-dependent decrease in Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl expression levels following myricetin treatment. Cell cycle arrest in G2/M phase of the cell cycle was also induced by the drug treatment. A concentration-dependent ROS generation was also witnessed and a 3-fold increase of ROS production was seen after 60 μM myricetin treatment. Myricetin exerts anticancer effects in U251 human glioma cells by inducing mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis, G2/M phase cell cycle arrest, ROS generation and inhibition of cell migration.