ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Bile acids have anti-cancer properties in a certain types of cancers. We determined anticancer activity and its underlying molecular mechanism of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) in human DU145 prostate cancer cells. METHODS: Cell viability was measured with an MTT assay. UDCA-induced apoptosis was determined with flow cytometric analysis. The expression levels of apoptosis-related signaling proteins were examined with Western blotting. RESULTS: UDCA treatment significantly inhibited cell growth of DU145 in a dose-dependent manner. It induced cellular shrinkage and cytoplasmic blebs and accumulated the cells with sub-G1 DNA contents. Moreover, UDCA activated caspase 8, suggesting that UDCA-induced apoptosis is associated with extrinsic pathway. Consistent to this finding, UDCA increased the expressions of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) receptor, death receptor 4 (DR4) and death receptor 5 (DR5), and TRAIL augmented the UDCA-induced cell death in DU145 cells. In addition, UDCA also increased the expressions of Bax and cytochrome c and decreased the expression of Bcl-xL in DU145 cells. This finding suggests that UDCA-induced apoptosis may be involved in intrinsic pathway. CONCLUSIONS: UDCA induces apoptosis via extrinsic pathway as well as intrinsic pathway in DU145 prostate cancer cells. UDCA may be a promising anti-cancer agent against prostate cancer.