Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies diagnosed in women and it is increasing in incidence. Siegesbeckia glabrescens (SG) has been used in traditional oriental medicine to treat cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and angina pectoris. This study examined whether or not SG could induce apoptosis in human breast carcinoma cells. The treatment of estrogen-receptor (ER)-positive (MCF-7) and ER-negative (MDA-MB-231) cells with a variety of SG concentrations (0-1.0 mg/ml) resulted in a dose-dependent sequence of events that were marked by apoptosis. Furthermore, this apoptosis was accompanied by the cleavage of procaspase-9 and -3, and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) in the MCF-7 cells, and procaspase-8 and -3 and PARP in the MDA-MB-231 cells. Although, the SG-induced apoptosis was associated with a decrease in the level of Bcl-2 mRNA expression and an increase in the level of Bax mRNA expression in MCF-7 cells, there was no detectable change in the MDA-MB-231 cells. This suggests that SG might exert anti-proliferative action in human breast carcinoma cells via two different apoptotic pathways, namely an intrinsic signal in MCF-7 cells and an extrinsic signal in MDA-MB-231 cells. Therefore, regardless of the ER status, SG might be a promising pro-apoptotic agent for treating breast cancer.

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