Colchicine of Colchicum Autumnale, A Traditional Anti-Inflammatory Medicine, Induces Apoptosis By Activation of Apoptotic Genes and Proteins Expression in Human Breast (Mcf-7) and Mouse Breast (4t1) Cell Lines

Objective: breast cancer is one of the major causes of mortality among women. due to many side effects of the existing chemotherapeutic agents, the research of anti-cancer drugs, including natural products, is still a big challenge. here, we investigated the effects of colchicine on apoptosis of two breast cancer cell lines ( human mcf-7 and mouse 4t1). materials and methods: in this experimental study, we evaluated the apoptotic effects of colchicine on (mcf-7) and (4t1), as well as a human cancer-associated fibroblast cell line as a control group. extraction and chromatographic techniques were applied to isolate colchicine from colchicum autumnale l. to compare the isolated colchicine with pure standard colchicine, we used the h-nmr technique. the methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (mtt) assay, quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, western blotting and annexin v/pi staining were used to evaluate the apoptotic effects of the isolated and standard colchicine. results: similar to standard colchicine, the isolated colchicine inhibited cell proliferation significantly in cancer cell lines. colchine inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis on a dose-dependent manner. the medicine modified the expression of genes-related to apoptosis by up-regulation of p53 ,bax, caspase-3, -9 and down-regulation of bcl-2 gene, which led to an increase in the bax/bcl-2 ratio.conclusion: we showed that isolated colchicine from colchicum autumnale and pure standard colchicines modulate the expression levels of several genes and therefore exerting their anticancer effects on both human (mcf-7) and mouse (4t1) breast cancer cells. based on these results, we suggest that colchicine can be a potential candidate for prevention and treatment of breast cancer.