Effects of the three flavonoids; kaempferol, quercetin, and myricetin on Baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) cells and Human hepatocellular carcinoma cell (HepG2) cells proliferations and total Erk1/2 protein expression

Abstract

Kaempferol, quercetin, and myricetin were regarded as the potential therapeutic flavonoids in several types of cancers. And the cancer cell proliferations that were directly induced by MAPK/Erk signaling pathway had been the important target of cancer treatment. Thus, this study was investigated the anti-proliferative effects of these three flavonoids together with total Erk1/2 protein expressions on Human hepatocellular carcinoma cell (HepG2) and Baby hamster kidney cells (BHK-2). The data showed the cytotoxic effects of 100 μM kaempferol, 5 μM myricetin and 50 μM quercetin on BHK-21 cells at 24h. After same incubation time, kaempferol (5 μM), myricetin (1 μM) and quercetin (1 μM) could significantly inhibit HepG2 cell proliferations. By western blot analysis, kaempferol and myricetin could not affect Total Erk1/2 proteins expression. But quercetin obviously suppressed total Erk1/2 protein expression in HepG2 cells at 24h. In conclusion, all three flavonoids had significant inhibitory effects on Hepatocellular carcinoma cells without cytotoxic effects on normal fibroblast. And inhibitory effects of quercetin in cancer cell proliferation related to total Erk1/2 protein reduction.