Cytotoxic impacts of escin via inducing apoptosis and morphological changes on human prostate cancer cells

Prostate cancer is one of the most prevalent cancer types in males with a percentages of 28% worldwide. This cancer type comprises approximately 37% of the cancer incidences in males in Turkey. Recent cancer investigations are focused on natural agents with good potent for cancer therapy. Escin is one of the most investigated agents of that kind but its effects on human prostate cancer cell's morphology is not investigated in detail, yet. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the antiproliferative, cytotoxic and proapoptotic effects of escin, on prostate cancer cells Du-145. Cytotoxicity of escin on prostate cancer cells was intestigated by using sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay and viability percentages and IC50 value were detected from the elisa reader (BioTek Synergy HTX) results. For morphological changes, Du-145 cells treated with the IC50 value of escin were evaluated under a confocal microscope (Leica, TCS SP5 II, Germany). Apoptosis profiles of cells were investigated by flow cytometry. According to the SRB findings escin reduced the viability of prostate cancer cells in dose-dependent manner and the IC50 value was detected as 30.48 µM for 24 hours. On the confocal microscopy results it was confirmed that escin significantly changed the morphology of the treated cells as disintegrated and deformed nuclei, chromatin condensation, fragmentations in the cytoskeleton also shrinkage of prostate cells. Annexin-V technique indicated the apoptotic cell death trigered by escin in Du-145 cells. Based on the study results, it was concluded that escin changed the morphology of prostate cancer cells and induced apoptosis on prostate cancer cells.