Human Colon Cancer HT29 Cell Line Treatment with High-Dose LAscorbic Acid Results to Reduced Angiogenic Proteins Expression and Elevated Pro-apoptotic Proteins Expression

Some studies have shown anticarcinogenic effects of high dose L-Ascorbic Acid. However, there are controversies around the therapeutic administration of Ascorbic acid as an anticancer medicine.

We conducted a case-control study to investigate the role of pharmacologic concentration of Ascorbic acid on viability and angiogenesis of the human colon cancer (HT29) cell line.

The HT29 cells were cultured in DMEM-HG and treated with 10 mM ascorbic acid for 3h. The culture medium was exchanged, and after incubation at 37 ºC for 24 h, the cells were collected and utilized to evaluate viability, ROS production, gene expression and protein expression levels. The control group consisted of untreated HT29 cells. The viability of the cells was determined using the MTT method. Moreover, Nitro Blue Tetrazolium (NBT) was used to detect the ROS production capacity. The mRNA transcript's level and protein expression were evaluated by Real-time PCR and Western blotting, respectively.

The ascorbic acid-treated group showed a significant increase in ROS production and an obvious reduction in viability compared to the control group. The treated group showed significantly increased levels of both early apoptotic markers (Bax, Cyt C, Caspase3, and Caspase 9) and late apoptotic markers (Caspase 8). Bcl2 expression showed significantly decreased levels relative to the control group. Ascorbic acid therapy substantially reduced the expression of bFGF, bFGFR, PDGF, PDGFR and PLC- γ compared to the control group.

The results confirm that high-dose L-ascorbic acid reduces HT29 cell line viability in vitro.