Induction of apoptosis and inhibition of growth in human gastric cancer by piperine

Abstract

Piperine [(E,E)-5-(3,4-methtylenedioxyphenyl)-2,4-pentadienolypiperidide] is a principal of Piperaceae, including Piper nigrum L. and Piper longum Linn., which has been used as a spice and traditional medicine. In this study, we investigated whether or not piperine has anti-cancer effects on AGS human gastric cancer cells. The results demonstrated that piperine not only inhibited proliferation using MTT assay but also induced apoptotic bodies using DAPI assay in a dose-dependent manner in response to piperine. Expression levels of p53, Bax (pro-apoptotic), cleaved caspase-9, and cleaved-PARP increased, whereas expression levels of Bcl-2, XIAP (anti-apoptotic), and Akt decreased in a dose-dependent manner compared with the control by western blotting analysis. To identify the connection between phospo-Akt and Bcl-2 family in response to piperine, LY249002 (Akt inhibitor) was treated with piperine (150 ?M). The results were shown that expression of phospo-Akt was reduced whereas expression of Bax and cleaved-PARP increased in a dose-dependent manner. These results indicate that piperine induced apoptosis in AGS cells and may serve as a chemopreventive or therapeutic agent for human gastric cancer. ? 2016, Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition. All rights reserved.