Effect of curcumin on caspase 8- and caspase 9- induced apoptosis of lymphoma Raji cell / 中国实验血液学杂志

ABSTRACT

Curcumin is a crucial component of curcuma. Recently more attention has been paid to the effect of curcumin on specific proliferative inhibition and inducing apoptosis of tumor cells. This study was aimed to investigate the anticancer activities of curcumin and its molecular mechanism. Raji cells (lymphoma cell line) were selected as studying targets, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNC) obtained from healthy donors were separated by Ficoll solution and suspended in RMPI 1640. The inhibition rates of Raji cells and PBMNC after treatment with curcumin at various concentrations and different times were determined by MTT method and were compared. The expressions of caspase 8 and caspase 9 in Raji cells after treatment with curcumin at 25 micromol/L (IC(50)) and for 24 hours were detected by Western blot. The results showed that curcumin could inhibit proliferation of Raji cells in dose-and time-dependent manner. Curcumin could remarkablely enhance the Raji cell apoptosis at 25 micromol/L and 24 hours (P < 0.01), and its effect was dose-dependent and time-selective. Curcumin had no remarkable effect on PBMNC at certain concentrations, which demonstrated that curcumin could selectively inhibit tumor cell proliferation. It is concluded that the expression of caspase 8 and caspase 9 plays an important role in the proliferation and apoptosis of Raji cells, so that curcumin showed inhibitive effect on Raji cells at various concentrations.