Background: Silibinin, as a chemopreventive agent, has shown anti-cancer efficacy against different types of cancers. In the present study, we investigated the anti-cancer activities of silibinin on CT26 mouse colon cell line.
Methods: CT26 cells were treated with different concentrations of silibinin. To examine the cytotoxic effect of silibinin on proliferation, apoptosis, autophagy, angiogenesis, and migration, MTT, colony-forming assay, Annexin V/PI flow cytometry, RT-qPCR, and Scratch assay were used.
Results: Silibinin was found to significantly reduce CT26 cells survival. Furthermore, silibinin strongly induced apoptosis and autophagy by up-regulating the expression of Bax, Caspase-3, Atg5, Atg7 and BECN1 and down-regulating Bcl-2. Silibinin considerably down-regulated the expression of COX-2, HIF-1α, VEGF, Ang-2, and Ang-4 as well as the expression of MMP-2, MMP-9, CCR-2 and CXCR-4.
Conclusions: The present study revealed that silibinin shows anticancer activities by targeting proliferation, cell survival, angiogenesis, and migration of CT26 cells.
Keywords: Angiogenesis; Apoptosis; Autophagy; Colorectal cancer; Migration; Silibinin.