Anti-cancer effects of fucoxantin via MAPK pathway and ROS generation in HL-60 cells

Abstract

Fucoxanthin, a natural biologically active substance isolated from Ishige okamurai, has potent antitumor activity both in vivo and in vitro. In the present study, we focused on the effect of fucoxanthin induction on reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, and triggering the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPKs) signaling pathway in human leukemia HL-60 cells. We found that ROS are generated during fucoxanthin-induced apoptosis in HL-60 cells, and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) which is a scavenger of ROS, suppressed fucoxantin-induced cytotoxicity and apoptosis. Furthermore, thetreatment with NAC dramatically inhibited fucoxanthin-induced phosphorylation of JNK and p38 kinase in HL-60 cells. In this study it was firstly demonstrated that fucoxanthin generated ROS and the accumulation of ROS played an important role in fucoxanthin-induced JNK/p38 MAPK signaling pathway, which provided further theoretical support for the application of fucoxanthin as a promising anticancer agent.