Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Morphological evaluation of MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells treated with DMEM extract of Turkish propolis

Meltem Uçar¹ , Orhan Deger²

¹European University of Lefke, Faculty of Health Sciences, Lefke, Northern Cyprus, TR-10 Mersin; ²Department of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey.

For correspondence:- Meltem Uçar Email: mucar@eul.edu.tr Tel:+903936602000255

Accepted: 19 April 2019 Published: 31 May 2019

Citation: Uçar M, Deger O. Morphological evaluation of MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells treated with DMEM extract of Turkish propolis. Trop J Pharm Res 2019; 18(5):935-939 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v18i5.4

© 2019 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the influence of DMEM extract of Turkish propolis (TP) on the morphology of metastatic MDA-MB-231 cells.

Methods: The cells were incubated with DMEM extract of TP (collected from Trabzon in Turkey) at a dose of 2.5 mg/mL for 72 h. The effect of DMEM extract on proliferation and cytotoxicity of the cells was determined using 3-[4,5-dimethyltiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and trypan blue exclusion assay. MDA-MB-231 cells incubated with or without extracts were randomly photographed with a camera-coupled inverted microscope. Treated and control MDA-MB-231 cells were classified as monopolar, bipolar or multipolar, and their dimensions measured with an electronic caliper.

Results: Although the extract reduced the proliferation of the cells, the effect was not statistically significant (p < 0.05). Moreover, no cytotoxic effect was observed. Field diameters, process length and cell body diameters of the treated cells were increased by DMEM extract treatment in bipolar and multipolar cell types, but these parameters were decreased in monopolar cell type, although insignificantly (p < 0.05). In addition, the process thickness of treated MDA-MB-231 cells increased insignificantly in all cell types (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: These findings indicate that DMEM extract of TP at a dose of 2.5 mg/mL morphologically suppresses monopolar MDA-MB-231 cells. Future studies would examine the morphological effects of different concentrations of the propolis extract in anti-proliferation, cytotoxicity and morphological investigations in MDA-MB-231 cells.

Keywords: Turkey propolis, MDA-MB-231 cells, Proliferation, Morphology, Cytotoxicity