Ginsenoside Rg1 Induces Apoptotic Cell Death in Triple‐Negative Breast Cancer Cell Lines and Prevents Carcinogen‐Induced Breast Tumorigenesis in Sprague Dawley Rats

Figures

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  Figure 1. Antiproliferative activity of ginsenoside Rg1 in triple-negative breast cancer cells. MTT assay was performed, and after 72 h, the cytotoxicity was measured and compared with standard anticancer drug paclitaxel. Ginsenoside showed IC50 value of 8.12 μM and paclitaxel showed IC50 value of 0.48 μM in MDA-MB-231 cell lines.

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  Figure 2. Effect of ginsenoside Rg1 on (i) ROS generation, (ii) mitochondrial membrane potential alteration, and (iii) apoptotic morphological changes by fluorescence microscopy.

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  Figure 3. Effect of ginsenoside Rg1 on gamma H2AX loci formation in MDA-MB-231 cells. The cells were treated with different concentrations of Rg1 for 24 h and then analyzed for foci formation by immunocytochemistry. The binding of mAb gH2A was revealed with FITC-labeled goat anti-mouse immunoglobulins (green). The nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (blue).

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  Figure 4. Effect of ginsenoside Rg1 on DNA fragmentation by TUNEL assay. TUNEL-positive lesions are enumerated as TUNEL-positive nuclei in MDA-MB-231 cells. The images were taken under a fluorescence microscope (Floid Cell Imaging Station, Invitrogen). Representative results of three independent experiments are shown for each experiment.

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  Figure 5. Expression levels of carcinogenesis-linked gene expression in the DMBA and DMBA plus ginsenoside Rg1 treated breast cancer tissue. The mRNA expression pattern of genes involved in cell proliferation, apoptosis, inflammation, and angiogenesis and EMT-linked genes was analyzed. The total mRNA was isolated from fresh breast tumor tissues and was detected using a custom qRT-PCR array following the manufacturer's instructions. The cluster gram results of three independent experiments were analyzed using the SA Biosciences online tool.