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The in vitro study of apoptosis in NB4 cell induced by citral

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Abstract

Citral, 3,7-dimethyl-2,6-octadienal, is a key component of the essential oils extracted from several lemon-scented herbal plants. Besides its antifungal activity, the anticancer effect of citral was studied in recent years. In this study, we investigated the effect of citral on the acute promyelocytic leukemia cell line NB4. Citral treatment had an antiproliferative effect in NB4 cells via the induction of apoptosis assessed by morphology, proliferation assay, DNA electrophoresis, Annexin V-FITC/PI staining and caspase-3 activation. And citral induced apoptosis of NB4 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. In addition, citral treatment induced decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, indicating that citral induced apoptosis via the mitochondrial pathway. Bax up-regulation and Bcl-2 down-regulation on mRNA level and NF-κB down-regulation on protein level was found in this study, suggesting that Bcl-2, Bax and NF-κB may be involved in the mechanism of the apoptotic effect of citral on NB4 cells. These data suggest that citral has a potential therapeutic effect on leukemia.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr Lixin Zhu for her help in English writing and technical supporting and Dr Saijuan Chen for her kindly supply of human tumor cell lines NB4. This experiment was supported by the national science foundation of PR China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, 218# Jixi Road, Hefei, 230022, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Hailong Xia, Wei Liang, Qin Song, Xiaowen Chen, Xin Chen & Jian Hong

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  1. Hailong Xia
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  2. Wei Liang
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  3. Qin Song
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  4. Xiaowen Chen
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  5. Xin Chen
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  6. Jian Hong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hailong Xia.

Additional information

Hailong Xia, Wei Liang, and Qin Song contribute equally to this paper.

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Xia, H., Liang, W., Song, Q. et al. The in vitro study of apoptosis in NB4 cell induced by citral. Cytotechnology 65, 49–57 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-012-9453-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10616-012-9453-2

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