Piperine is an alkaloid-amine found in pepper and has been reported to have anticarcinogenic properties. To explore the possibility that piperine has cancer chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic effects in colon cancer, we examined whether piperine inhibits the growth of HT-29 human colon cancer cells and investigated the mechanisms for this effect. Cells were cultured with various concentrations (0~40 μM) of piperine. Piperine decreased the cell viability and induced apoptosis of HT-29 cells. Western blot analysis of total cell lysates revealed that piperine decreases the protein levels of Bcl-2, Mcl-1, and intact Bid but increases Bik levels. Piperine increased the percentage of cells with depolarized mitochondrial membrane, and the release of cytochrome c into cytoplasm. Piperine induced the cleavage of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase and caspases 8, 9, 7, and 3 and increased the Fas levels. In addition, piperine significantly decreased the protein levels of survivin. The present results indicate that piperine inhibits the growth of HT-29 colon cancer cells by the induction of apoptosis, which may be mediated by its ability to change the Bcl-2 family proteins, increase the activation of caspases, and decrease survivin levels. Overall, our findings suggest that piperine has cancer chemotherapeutic effects in colon cancer.

This study investigated the relationship between preschoolers’ smart media usage in regards to cognitive and language development, especially the mediating effect of preschoolers’ smart media addiction tendency and the moderated mediating effect of maternal guidance on smart media usage. The study surveyed 273 preschoolers’ mothers who lived in Daegu City and Kyungpook Province. The findings of this study were as follows. First, preschoolers’ smart media addiction tendency mediated the relationship between smart media usage time in regards to cognitive and language development. Second, maternal active mediation and monitoring moderated the relationship between preschoolers’ smart media usage time and smart media addiction tendency. Third, there was a maternal co-use moderated the mediating effect of preschoolers’ smart media addiction tendency on language development. In conclusion, preschoolers’ smart media addition tendency mediated the effect of smart media usage time on cognitive and language development. Among the mediation pathways, the influence of preschoolers’ smart media addiction tendency on language development was moderated by maternal co-use. The findings of this study suggest that maternal guidance should be applied differently depending on preschoolers’ smart media addiction tendency. This study examined preschoolers’ and maternal smart media-related variables on preschoolers’ cognitive and language development in order to provide preliminary data that can be used to explore the maternal guidance on how to use smart media for their preschool children.

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