Abstract

Background and Objectives

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood malignancy. The side effects of chemotherapeutic drugs have primarily lead to the increased use of natural products for cancer treatment. Juniperus excelsa, a medicinal herb, was reported to show antiproliferative effects on various cancer cells. In this study, cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of extract from aerial parts of Juniperus excelsa plant were investigated on acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell lines, Nalm-6 and Reh.  

Materials and Methods

In this basic research, Nalm-6 and Reh were cultured and then they were treated with various concentrations of J. excelsa extract for 48 and 72 h and then the cell viability was evaluated by using MTT assay. Apoptosis also was assessed by caspase 3 activity assay and flow cytometry following Annexin V and Propidium iodide staining. Statistical analysis was assessed by one-way ANOVA test and SPSS 23.

Results

MTT assay results show that J. excelsa extract concentrations of 3, 4 and 5 µg/ml significantly reduce percentage of alive cells (p < 0.001). Flow cytometry results also show that J. excelsa extract significantly increase percentage of apoptotic cells compared with control groups (p < 0.001). Caspase 3 activity assay results show that caspase 3 activity was significantly increased in treated cells (p < 0.05).

Conclusions 

Our study shows that extract from aerial parts of J. excelsa has cytotoxic and apoptotic effects on Nalm-6 and Reh cells.