Antileukemic Potential ofMomordica charantiaSeed Extracts on Human Myeloid Leukemic HL60 Cells

Abstract

Momordica charantia(bitter gourd) has been used in the traditional system of medicine for the treatment of various diseases. Anticancer activity ofM. charantiaextracts has been demonstrated by numerousin vitroandin vivostudies. In the present study, we investigated the differentiation inducing potential of fractionatedM. charantiaseed extracts in human myeloid HL60 cells. We found that the HL60 cells treated with the fractionated seed extracts differentiated into granulocytic lineage as characterized by NBT staining, CD11b expression, and specific esterase activity. The differentiation inducing principle was found to be heat-stable, and organic in nature. The differentiation was accompanied by a downregulation ofc-myctranscript, indicating the involvement ofc-mycpathway, at least in part, in differentiation. Taken together these results indicate that fractionated extracts ofM. charantiaseeds possess differentiation inducing activity and therefore can be evaluated for their potential use in differentiation therapy for leukemia in combination with other inducers of differentiation.