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Quercetin inhibits the invasion and mobility of murine melanoma B16-BL6 cells through inducing apoptosis via decreasing Bcl-2 expression

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Abstract

Quercetin has been known to have anti-tumor and anti-oxidation activities. In the present study, we have investigated its in vitro anti-metastatic activity. Quercetin inhibited the invasion and mobility of murine melanoma B16-BL6 cells in a dose-dependent manner but did not affect their adhesion to either laminin, fibronectin, or type VI collagen. Moreover, quercetin significantly inhibited the proliferation of B16-BL6 cells only in the case of time incubation longer than 48 h. Quercetin dose-dependently decreased the cell rates in S and G2–M phases of cell cycle. The effect of quercetin to cause a remarkable apoptosis of B16-BL6 cells was also demonstrated by flow cytometric assay as well as DNA fragmentation with a typical 180-bp ladder band in agarose electrophoresis and a quantitative analysis. Furthermore, quercetin markedly inhibited the expression of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 but hardly influenced Bcl-XL. These results suggest that the inhibition of quercetin on invasiveness and migration of B16-BL6 cells are closely associated with the arrest of cell cycle as well as the induction of apoptosis by decreasing the Bcl-2 expression.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, The People's Republic of China

    Xianming Zhang & Qiang Xu

  2. Department of Pathogenic Biochemistry, Research Institute for Wakan-yaku, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Sugitani, Toyama, Japan

    Ikuo Saiki

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  1. Xianming Zhang
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  2. Qiang Xu
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Zhang, X., Xu, Q. & Saiki, I. Quercetin inhibits the invasion and mobility of murine melanoma B16-BL6 cells through inducing apoptosis via decreasing Bcl-2 expression. Clin Exp Metastasis 18, 415–421 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010960615370

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