Proliferative Effect of Gum Tragacanth on Different Cancer Cells

Abstract

Gum tragacanth (GT) is a natural plant exudate discharged from the twigs and stems of Asiatic species of the Astragalus genus. GT is a heterogeneous polysaccharide which has been utilized in various biomedical fields and traditionally in ethnomedicine because of its distinctive physicochemical and biological properties, such as great biocompatibility, thermal stability biodegradability, hydrophilicity and antioxidant activity. The aim of this study was to examine whether GT has cytotoxic effects on various cancer cell lines. For this aim, four cancer cell lines i.e., human colorectal adenocarcinoma (CACO-2), glioblastoma multiforme tumor (T98G), ovarian sarcoma (SKOV-3), and breast cancer (MCF-7) cells were used. GT was prepared at the concentration of 200 µg/mL, 100 µg/mL, 50 µg/mL, 25 µg/mL and 12.5 µg/mL, using both 5% DMSO and dH2O as solvent. MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) colorimetric assay was used for in vitro cytotoxicity study. GT had no cytotoxic effect on these cancer cells since cell viability percentages were found to be above 80% for all the treatments. However, remarkable dose-dependent cell proliferation efficiency of GT at certain concentrations was observed on all cancer cells except MCF-7. In conclusion, this study suggests that cancer patients should be careful about the use of GT or products containing GT due to the increasing effect of GT on the proliferation of cancer cells.