الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 237 |  |  |
| | | from | 237 | | |
Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma is the fifth leading cancer causing death worldwide. Currently researchers focus on using medicinal plants for the treatment of cancer due to the development of resistance to chemotherapeutic agents and the serious side effects of chemotherapy. Locally available plants could provide accessible and economically feasible sources for herbal HCC preventives. Aloe vera (A. vera) and Calligonum comosum (C. comosum) “arta” are Egyptian plants that are used as source of medicine in rural areas. A. vera can exhibit anticancer activity. Also, C. comosum was thought to have anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer and anti-cancer activities in rat and shrimp animal models. The aim of this study was to evaluate biochemically and histopathologically the antitumor effect of different doses of A. vera and C. comosum extracts on human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line (HepG2), as well as studying their cytotoxic and genotoxic effect on inducing apoptosis, DNA damage and the expression of P53 and Bcl2 molecules by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction and flow cytometer. HepG2 cells were tested against different doses of A. vera and C. comosum. Viability of the cells was assessed by MTT assay. Evaluation of apoptosis and DNA damage in HepG2 cells were performed using Annexin V Apoptosis Detection Kit. The expression of p53 and anti-apoptotic (Bcl-2) were tested by Real Time-PCR and flow cytometer analyser. Hematoxylin & Eosin stained sections from untreated and treated HepG2 cells were observed using light microscopy. The IC50 values of A. vera and C. comosum extracts were (10.45 ± 0.31) and (9.6 ± 0.01) µg/ml respectively. The extracts separately showed an increased cytotoxicity against HepG2 cells in a dose dependent manners. Also, it apparently induced apoptosis through increase of P53 and decrease of Bcl-2 expressions. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates that the herbal extracts of A. vera and C. comosum can induce cell death in human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cell, in a dose and time dependent manner through up regulation of P53 and down regulation of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 molecules which are involved in intrinsic or mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis and could be a kind of promising agent for further evaluations in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma so more efforts should be focused especially on the clarification of the mechanisms of action of the components of herbs, which is vital for developing their potential applications in treating terminal diseases like cancer.