1st International Health Sciences and Life Congress, Burdur, Turkey, 2 - 05 May 2018, pp.19
Colon cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide
and has high mortality and morbidity rates. The first
treatment option is surgery, followed by chemotherapy
and radiotherapy. But it has poor prognosis and high
recurrence rates. Therefore, it is necessary to develop
new and effective treatment approaches. Boric Acid
(BA) is the most common form of the “boron” in animals
and is a part of a daily diet. Boric acid has some
important chemical properties that support its use in
cancer therapy. It has been shown that boric acid has
antiproliferative and apoptotic properties in some cancer
cell lines.
In this study we aimed to investigate the apoptotic effects
of BA on sw480 human colon cancer cells in monolayer
culture conditions.
Cells were exposed to BA for 24,48 and 72 hours.
TUNEL assay was used to determine apoptotic cells and
the proliferation status of cells were monitored with BrdU
labelling index. Also to confirm apoptotic processes we
used active caspase 3 and AIF immunohistochemical
stainings.
The IC50 inhibition dose of BA on sw480 cells was 75
mM. After treatment with BA we detect TUNEL positive
cells and the number of the dead cells was counted more
than the control group. While control group had normal
S- phase fraction, only few of BA treated cells nuclei
were labelled with BrdU. We observed positive findings
for both active caspase 3 and AIF in
immunohistochemical stainings.In the light of these
results we concluded that BA inhibit the proliferation of
sw480 colon cancer cells and induces apoptosis. BA,
which is already part of the daily diet and which can be
regarded as relatively safe in terms of toxic effects; is an
important potential anti-cancer agent.