Background: Oral mucositis is a common adverse effect of antineoplastic chemotherapy limiting sufficient dose of chemoregimen. Numerous attempts to mitigate chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis have failed to identify an appropriate treatment.
Hypothesis: We hypothesize that Artemisia asiatica (Pamp.) Nakai ex Kitam ethanol extract (Aa-EE) would mitigate cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity to oral mucosal epithelial cells.
Study design: In vitro experimental study.
Methods: Cell viability and wound healing assay were performed. Apoptosis, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) change, and changes in apoptosis-related signaling were demonstrated in human primary keratinocyte (HaCaT).
Results: Cisplatin inhibited HaCaT cell proliferation and migration. Aa-EE protected against these effects. Cisplatin treatment of HaCaT cells caused apoptosis and changes in MMP. Aa-EE inhibited cisplatin-induced apoptosis, and stabilized the cisplatin-induced loss of MMP. Western blots revealed that Aa-EE reduced the expression of cytochrome c and cleaved caspase-3 and inhibited nuclear translocation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), compared with the levels observed after cisplatin treatment, whereas Bcl-2 expression was increased by Aa-EE.
Conclusion: Collectively, our results suggest that Aa-EE protects HaCaT cells by inhibiting cisplatin-induced mitochondrial damage associated with Bcl-2 activity and by inhibiting nuclear translocation of NF-κB.
Keywords: Apoptosis; Artemisia asiatica (Pamp.) Nakai ex Kitam ethanol extract; Bcl-2; Cisplatin-induced mucositis; Eupatilin; Nuclear factor-kappa B.
Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier GmbH.