Effects of Carthamus tinctorius L. solvent extracts on anti-proliferation of human colon cancer (SW 620 cell line) via apoptosis and the growth promotion of lymphocytes

The in vitro effects of dichloromethane, methanol and hexane extracts of Carthamus tinctorius on caspase-dependentanti-tumor activity against human colon carcinoma SW620 cell lines were investigated by MTT assay, Annexin V staining andreal-time RT-PCR. In addition, the immunomodulatory activity of each solvent extract was examined by determination oflymphocyte proliferation using flow cytometry. Only dichloromethane extract of C. tinctorius exhibited the inhibitory effect ongrowth of SW620 cells with IC50 of 0.15 mg/ml, respectively, in comparison to the Hep2 (0.5 mg/ml) and control BHK cells (0.6mg/ml). Moreover, it was associated with up-regulation of caspase 3, 7 and 9 and down regulation of Bcl2 transcripts in treatedSW620 cell. The dichloromethane extract showed the highest stimulatory effect on the lymphocyte proliferation with anincrease of 8±1.6 fold, followed by the methanol and hexane extract with increases of 12±1.1 and 14±1.6 fold, respectively.