inhibitory effects of cichorium intybus root extract on the proliferation and lipogenesis of the skbr3 cells

Background: fatty acid synthase (fasn) is a key enzyme in de novo lipogenesis pathway. fasn overexpression is a common feature of many human cancers like breast cancer. furthermore, fasn expression in her2 - positive cell lines like skbr3 is more than other cell lines, such as mcf - 7, which are not her2 - positive. cichorium intybus is a medicinal herb and methanolic extract of this plant significantly suppressed cell viability and growth in some cancer cells. objectives: in this study, we aimed at investigating the effect of methanolic extract of cichorium intybus on the fasn expression and, therefore, lipogenesis pathway in human breast cancer skbr3 cell line. methods: we assessed the cytotoxicity effect of chicorium intybus on the cell viability of skbr3 cells, using mtt assay. in addition, apoptosis rate was assessed by annexinv/pi flow cytometry. finally, real time q - pcr was used for the analysis of fasn gene expression. results: the results showed that the methanolic extract of cichorium intybus caused a dose - dependent decrease in the cell viability of skbr3 cells. additionally, the treatment of confluent skbr3 cells with extract led to reduced fasn expression at mrna level. conclusions: these results suggest that chicorium intybus not only inhibits cell viability in a dose - dependent manner, but also presumably inhibits lipogenesis by markedly decreased fasn expression as a key lipogenic enzyme.