Garlic Extract Can Induce Apoptotic Cell Death in the Human Colonadenocarcinoma Ht29 Cell Line

Background and objective: garlic has been known worldwide as a dietary constituentwith many pharmacological effects. the present in vitro study was designed to investigate theputative anticancer effect of garlic extract on cancer cells, and if this effect was through apoptosisinduction.material and methods: human colon adenocarcinoma cells ht29 were treated with differentdoses (1, 5 and 10 mg/ml) of fresh garlic extract in cell culture at 24, 48 and 72 h. cell death was assessedby viability test, and its apoptotic nature was determined by terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferasemediateddutp nick end labeling (tunel) assay. all experiments were statistically analyzed usingspss 11.5 softwareresults: garlic extract induced a dose-dependent cell death with the highest values at 72 hours.the apoptosis analyses by tunel assay demonstrated that in each dose/time group the apoptoticvalues are much less prominent than the related cell death percentage found in viability test. inevery dose, the sum of apoptotic cells in all three-time points was nearly equal to the percentage ofcell death at 72 hours.conclusion: fresh garlic extract can induce a dose-dependent apoptotic cell death in culturedht29 cell line.