Study of thymoquinone effect on growth and cell proliferation in leukemic lymphoblastic cell lines (jurkat).

Soltani, Amin; Pourgheysari, Batoul; Shirzd, Hedayatollah; Shirzad, Moin

Objectives: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a lymph proliferative disorder, is known and identified by its rapid proliferation of cancerous lymphoid cells. T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is characterized by the abnormal proliferation of pre-T cell clones that are blocked at an immature stage. Thymoquinone (TQ) is derived from the medicinal spice Nigella sativa (also known and referred to as black cumin); and exhibits anti inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-cancerous activities. It has been shown in previous studies that TQ exhibits inhibitory effects on a variety of different types of cancers. In the present study, we set out to investigate the full effects of TQ on the growth and proliferation of leukemic lymphoblastic cells. Materials and Methods: Jurkat cell line (C121) were cultured in standard conditions (consisting of 95% humidity, 5% CO2) in RPMI 1640 supplemented with 10% FBS., with TQ was being dissolved in DMSO. Jurkat cells were then seeded in 96-well plates at densities of 10*103 per well, 24 hours before experiment and were treated with the following: vehicle control (DMSO), TQ at 10-100 µM, untreated cella as control subjects as well as cell-free wells as blanks. Cell viability was measured periodically by MTS assay after each 24, 48 and 72 hours. Results: Findings show that the inhibitory effect of TQ at concentrations of 10 - 100µM on the growth of Jurkat cells were statistically significant (p<0.05). In addition to this, incubation with TQ for 24, 48 and 72 hours had exhibited an IC50 (inhibition concentration) of about 20, 16 and 14 µM, respectively. Conclusion: The study has shown that TQ was effective on proliferation inhibition in Jurkat lymphoblastic cell line, when administrated in a time and dose-dependent manner. Thus, studies concerning apoptosis mechanisms could be a step towards progress for therapeutic goals, and could be considered in future studies and viable forms of treatment.

QUINONE compounds; CANCER cell growth; LYMPHOBLASTIC leukemia

Avicenna Journal of Phytomedicine, 2015, Vol 5, p119

2228-7930

Academic Journal