ABSTRACT
One of the most common malignancies in women is breast cancer. Although several treatments for breast cancer are available, application of herbal medicine as a supplementary treatment is a new option to help curing the disease. In this study anticancer effects of Polygonum avicular herbal extract was investigated. Polygonum avicular extract was obtained by methanol. MCF-7 cell line was treated with different concentrations of Polygonum avicular [50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300,350 400 ng/ micro l] for different time lengths [6, 12, 24, and 48 hrs]. MTT assay and Flow Cytometry were used to evaluate cell proliferation and apoptosis, respectively. RT-PCR was also carried out to evaluate the expression of apoptotic genes. Results showed that Polygonum avicular induced cytotoxicity in MCF- 7 cell line at concentrations higher than 300 ng/ micro l and this was confirmed by the highest rate of cell death as measured by Trypan Blue and MTT assays. RT-PCR results showed up-regulation of P53 and down-regulation of Bcl-2 proteins which implied the ability of Polygonum avicular to induce apoptosis in MCF-7 cells and confirmed its anticancer property. Further studies are required to evaluate effects of the extract on other apoptotic genes