Context Curcumin is widely used in China and India as a traditional herb but additional work is required to ascertain the folkloric claim of its antitumour and antioxidant activities. Objective The present study determines the antitumour effect of curcumin against SKOV3 cell growth. Materials and methods SKOV3 cells were incubated with curcumin (0, 20, 30 and 40 μM) for 72 h. The antiproliferative activity and the apoptosis rate were measured by MTT and flow cytometry. Expression of PI3K, T-Akt and p-Akt proteins was measured by western blotting. Results The administration of curcumin (0, 20, 30 and 40 μM) inhibits SKOV3 cell growth (IC50 value= 24.8 μM) and increased apoptosis (32.5 and 85.7%). The activity of SKOV3 cell invasion (98.2 and 19.4%) was also decreased by curcumin administration (p < 0.05). Results of western blot analysis confirmed that the expression of p-Akt protein was decreased by curcumin (p < 0.05). It was also found that a high dose of curcumin (40 μM) can cause stronger antitumour activity (80.4%). Conclusion Our results suggest that the curcumin induced SKOV3 apoptosis via modulation of the PI3K/Akt-signalling pathway.
Keywords: Antitumour; MTT; medicinal plant.