Cytotoxic Effect of Clerosterol Isolated from Codium fragile on A2058 Human Melanoma Cells

Abstract

The cytotoxic effects and mechanism of action of clerosterol, isolated from the marine alga Codium fragile, were investigated in A2058 human melanoma cells. Clerosterol inhibited the growth of A2058 cells with an IC50 of 150 µM and induced apoptotic cell death, as evidenced by DNA fragmentation, an increase in the number of sub-G1 hypodiploid cells and the presence of apoptotic bodies. Clerosterol treatment caused the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential. Alterations in the expression of apoptosis-associated proteins in response to clerosterol treatment included upregulation of Bax, downregulation of Bcl-2 and activation of caspases 3 and 9. The pan-caspase inhibitor treatment attenuated the expression of the active form of caspases and cell death induced by clerosterol. The present results show that clerosterol exerts its cytotoxic effect in A2058 human melanoma cells by caspases-dependent apoptosis.

Brown Algae <i>Himantothallus grandifolius</i> (Desmarestiales, Phaeophyceae) Suppresses Proliferation and Promotes Apoptosis-Mediated Cell Death in Tumor Cells

“…Apoptosis is a programmed form of cell death observed in tissues during development and maintains tissue homeostasis through elimination of excessive or injured cells [35] [36]. Recent studies have shown that several bioactive compounds obtained from algae induced tumor cell death by apoptotic mechanism [14] [16] [37]. However, our study is pioneer in demonstrating these morphological changes through in situ analysis induced by the extract obtained from H. grandifolius.…”

Screening of antimicrobial activity of macroalgae extracts from the Moroccan Atlantic coast

“…However, several studies have demonstrated the richness of these two algae with different biological compounds [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”

Acute effects of a prooxidant herbicide on the microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: Screening cytotoxicity and genotoxicity endpoints.

“…Furthermore, cells with DNA fragmentation can be identified in DNA content frequency cytograms by the appearance of a subG1 cell population (Ebrahimi Nigjeh et al, 2013, Kajstura et al, 2007, Kim et al, 2013, Kim et al, 2014Stanojković et al, 2013). In this study, a significant subpopulation of C. reinhardtii cells treated with paraquat seemed to suffer severe DNA damage, which led to a concentration-dependent increase in the percentage of cells observed in the subG1 phase with regard to control cultures.…”