cytotoxicity effect of hull-less seed pumpkin extract on human papillary thyroid cancer cell line

Introduction: thyroid cancer is the most prevalent endocrine malignancy tumor, and its incidence is increasing. chemotherapy drugs like paclitaxel (ptx) are a common treatment for cancer; however, they have many adverse effects. plants are a source of anticancer agents. the present study assessed the cytotoxic effects of hydroalcoholic extract in comparison with those of paclitaxel on papillary thyroid cancer (ptc) cell line.methods: ptc cell line was treated by different concentrations of extract and paclitaxel for 24, 48, and 72 h. cytotoxicity was examined through trypan blue and clonogenic assays. acridine orange/ethidium bromide (ao/eb) staining was used for detecting apoptotic cells. the observations were statistically tabulated and analyzed. results: the trypan blue staining results suggested that hydroalcoholic extract had a cytotoxic effect on ptc cells. our results of ao/eb staining revealed that the hydroalcoholic extract of hullless seed pumpkin (hlsp) in the concentration of ge;100 mu;l/ml induced significant apoptosis in the ptc cultured cell (p<0.05). in addition, the ao/eb staining data suggested an increase in the number of apoptotic cells with increasing the concentration of extract and paclitaxel. the clonogenic assay results indicated a decrease in colonies by increasing the concentration. comparing the groups treated by paclitaxel or hlsp extract, with the control group revealed significant differences between them (p<0.05).conclusion: the hlsp extract had a cytotoxic effect on the human ptc cell line. based on the adverse effects of chemotherapy drugs, this extract can be considered as a beneficial agent for ptc treatment.