Article · Volume 51, Issue 4 · pp. 597–602

Silibinin: An Inhibitor of Mir-181a Gene Expression in Sk-Br-3 Breast Cancer Cell Line

Parvaneh Shahinfar¹, Nasrin Motamed², Elnaz Birjandian², Omid Shabanpour³

¹Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Kharazmi University, Tehran, IRAN.
²School of Biology, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, IRAN.
³Faculty of Medicine, Shahrood Islamic Azad University of Medicine, Shahrood, IRAN.

Abstract

Background: Mir-181a has been considered as an attractive molecular target for breast cancer therapy. The main objective of this work is to assess the inhibitory effects of silibinin, a herbal substance, on proliferation, apoptosis and Mir-181a gene expression in human breast cancer cell line SK-BR-3.Materials and Methods: Human breast cancer cell line SK-BR-3 was treated with various concentration of silibinin. Cell viability was assessed by MTT assay and apoptosis by flow cytometry. Expression of human mir-181a gene was measured with real-time PCR.Results: Silibinin inhibits growth of SK-BR-3 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner and effectively induces apoptosis of SK-BR-3 cells. In addition, silibinin caused a decrease in Mir-181a level.Conclusion: These findings suggest that cell viability along with Mir-181a gene expression in breast cancer cells could be reduced by silibinin. These results suggest that silibinin inhibits the proliferation of SK-BR-3 cells, and it induces apoptosis by down-regulating Mir-181a expression in breast cancer cells.

Keywords: Silibinin; Cell Viability; Apoptosis; Sk-Br-3 Cell Line; Mir-181a

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