Anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effect of carvacrol on human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG-2

Abstract

Carvacrol is one of the members of monoterpene phenol and is present in the volatile oils of Thymus vulgaris, Carum copticum, origanum and oregano. It is a safe food additive commonly used in our daily life, and few studies have indicated that carvacrol has anti-hepatocarcinogenic activities. The rationale of the study was to examine whether carvacrol affects apoptosis of human hepatoma HepG2 cells. In this study, we showed that carvacrol inhibited HepG2 cell growth by inducing apoptosis as evidenced by Hoechst 33258 stain and Flow cytometric (FCM) analysis. Incubation of HepG2 cells with carvacrol for 24 h induced apoptosis by the activation of caspase-3, cleavage of PARP and decreased Bcl-2 gene expression. These results demonstrated that a significant fraction of carvacrol treated cells died by an apoptotic pathway in HepG2 cells. Moreover, carvacrol selectively altered the phosphorylation state of members of the MAPK superfamily, decreasing phosphorylation of ERK1/2 significantly in a dosedependent manner, and activated phosphorylation of p38 but not affecting JNK MAPK phosphorylation. These results suggest that carvacrol may induce apoptosis by direct activation of the mitochondrial pathway, and the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway may play an important role in the antitumor effect of carvacrol. These results have identified, for the first time, the biological activity of carvacrol in HepG2 cells and should lead to further development of carvacrol for liver disease therapy.

Teste da ação antibacteriana in vitro de óleo essencial comercial de Origanum vulgare (orégano) diante das cepas de Escherichia coli e Staphylococcus aureus

“…Segundo Yin et al (2012), o carvacrol é um aditivo alimentar seguro que apresenta atividades anti-hepatocarcinogênicas ao inibir o crescimento de células HepG2, induzindo a apoptose pela ativação direta da via mitocondrial.…”

Modulation of Cytokine Production and Transcription Factors Activities in Human Jurkat T Cells by Thymol and Carvacrol

“…30 In another study carvacrol decreased the phosphorylation of ERK and activated phosphorylation of p38 but did not affect JNK phosphorylation in a hepatocellular carcinoma cell line. 31 These data indicated that thymol and carvacrol had diverse effects on different transcription factors and suggested that they might modulate the functions of immune cells via different intracellular signaling pathways. The net effect of activation of the transcription factors might determine the final outcome.…”

Cytotoxic Effect of Thymus caramanicus Jalas on Human Oral Epidermoid Carcinoma KB Cells

“…Previous research has shown that carvacrol effects involve ERK and the phosphorylation of p38 MAPK and JNK (22). Carvacrol can decrease the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 MAPK and activate phosphorylation of p38 MAPK but has no effect on JNK and MAPK in HepG2 cells, and their role in carvacrolinduced apoptosis is still unclear (23).…”