Recent studies have revealed that
osthole, an active constituent isolated from the fruit of Cnidium monnieri (L.) Cusson, a
traditional Chinese medicine, possesses anticancer activity. However, its effect on
breast cancer cells so far has not been elucidated clearly. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of
osthole on the proliferation, cell cycle and apoptosis of human
breast cancer cells MDA-MB 435. We demonstrated that
osthole is effective in inhibiting the proliferation of MDA-MB 435 cells, The mitochondrion-mediated apoptotic pathway was involved in apoptosis induced by
osthole, as indicated by activation of
caspase-9 and
caspase-3 followed by PARP degradation. The mechanism underlying its effect on the induction of G1 phase arrest was due to the up-regulation of p53 and p21 and down-regulation of Cdk2 and
cyclin D1 expression. Were observed taken together, these findings suggest that the anticancer efficacy of
osthole is mediated via induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human
breast cancer cells and
osthole may be a potential chemotherapeutic agent against human
breast cancer.