| Breast cancer is known as the most frequently diagnosed cancer and second cause of cancer death in women. Nowadays
standard treatments for cancer patients are surgery, radiation-, and chemotherapy which all have limited success. Statistics
also indicate an urgent need to find more effective therapeutic methods for the patients. Today there is an increasing attention
to botanical treatments worldwide. Humulus lupulus L. or Hops is a climber plant belonging to family cannabinaceae. It
contains phytoestrogens with various therapeutic properties particularly in cancer research. There are controversial results
regarding proliferative/anti-proliferative effects of phytoestrogens on the cancer cell lines. However, the effects of
dichloromethane extract of Humulus lupulus on human breast cancer cell lines have never been reported. The aim of this study
is to evaluate the effects of dichloromethane extract of Humulus lupulus on the two human breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and
MDA-MB 231. Fresh hop extract was prepared by maceration method. MTT assay used to determine cell viability in two
human breast cancer cell lines. The IC50 values of MCF-7 cells were 95.35±1.94, 19.58±0.21 and 19.10±0.76 μg/ml for 24, 48
and 72 h of incubation, respectively. MDA-MB 231 cells showed the IC50 values of 111.38± 2.56, 28.89± 1.08 and 19.70± 0.98
μg/ml for 24, 48 and 72 h, respectively. Our findings indicated that dichloromethane extract of hops has anti-proliferative
effect on both MCF-7 and MDA-MB 231cells and its inhibitory effects are higher to MCF-7 cells than to MDA-MB-231 cells. |