The effect of α- tocopherol and lovastatin on apoptosis induction in human colorectal carcinoma cell line

Colorectal cancer is one of the most important and most common fatal types of cancer in the world. Identifying new agents which individually or in combination with other agents induce apoptosis in tumor cells is surely of great significance in treatment of colon cancer. The aim of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of applying lovastatin and α-tocopherol individually or in combination with each other in the induction of apoptosis in human colorectal cancer cells.

In this trial, HT29 cells were exposed to various concenterations of lovastatin (5, 10, and 20 μmol) and/or alpha tocopherol (10, 20, and 25, and 30 μmol). After cell count, these cells were examined through trypan blue method and DNA fragmentation technique.

The findings of DNA fragmentation technique showed that each of the two drugs could induce apoptosis at all of the given concentrations. In the combination of 10 μmol concentration of lovastatin and 5 and 10 μmol concentrations of α-tocopherol, induction of apoptosis was not observed.

Based on the extensive effects of statins, the concentration of lovastatin is seen as determining in its apoptosis function, and its combination with tocopheroles in high concentrations, by inducing apoptosis, can provide novel effective strategies for prevention of human colorectal cancer.