Lycopen can induce programmed cell death and cell cycle arrest in hormone refractory prostate cancer cells. - GreenMedInfo Summary

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of lycopene on proliferation of human prostate cancer cell line PC-3 and explore its effecting mechanism. METHODS: The proliferation of PC-3 cells were analyzed by MTT and H3-TdR incorporation. The effects of cell cycle and apoptosis of synchronized cells were observed through flow cytometry. RT-PCR methods were used to explore the mRNA expression level of cyclin D1, bcl-2, bax. RESULTS: The growth and DNA synthesis of PC-3 cell were inhibited with the lycopene concentration increased, and lycopene also could change the cell cycle distribution, i. e. increasing the proportion of G0/G1 phase and descending the proportion of S and G2/M phase, and induce the apoptosis. RT-PCR analysis showed that the mRNA expression level of cyclin D1 and bcl-2 were down regulated, while the level of bax was up regulated. CONCLUSION: Lycopene can induce apoptosis of PC-3, change the cell cycle distribution and downregulate the expression of cyclin D1 and bcl-2 and upregulate the expression of bax and then restrain cell proliferation.