Allicin-induced modulation of angiogenesis in lung cancer cells (A549)

Purpose: To investigate the effectiveness of allicin as a candidate for lung cancer therapy.Methods: Allicin solution at different concentrations was tested on A549 lung cancer cell line. Viability and proliferation of A549 cells were determined. The cytotoxic effects of allicin solution on A549 lung cancer cells were quantitatively determined using Alamar blue assay. Cell proliferation and cell cycle were measured by DAPI-flow cytometry analysis in order to investigate the possible cell  signalling pathway targeted by allicin. The level of expression of VEGF-A protein was determined with confocal laser scanning microscopy.Results: Allicin inhibited lung cancer proliferation and down-regulated the protein expression of VEGF, but had no significant cytotoxic effects on A549 cells. Flow cytometric results showed that allicin induced cell cycle arrest of A549 cells at the G1 phase.Conclusion: These results indicate that allicin exerts anti-proliferative effects on A549 lung cancer cells. Thus allicin, an active component of garlic, might be a promising therapy against lung cancer metastasis.Keywords: A549 cells, Allicin, qPCR Taqman assay, VEGF-A protein expression, Garlic, Lung cance

Liquid Marble as Micro-bioreactor for Bioengineering Applications

This paper reports the use of liquid marbles (LMs) as miniature bioreactors to produce three-dimensional (3D) spheroids including tumor-like spheriods from cancer cells and embryoid bodies (EBs) from stem cells. A liquid marble microbioreactor is prepared by placing a drop of cell suspension onto a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) particle bed. Without the addition of growth factors, suspended EBs from liquid marbles exhibit spontaneous contraction. These results indicate that the liquid marble provides a suitable microenvironment to induce EB formation and spontaneous cardiac differentiation. The EBs were further plated onto gelatin-coated tissue culture dishes. Plated EBs express mature cardiomyocyte marker cardiac troponinT (cTnT), indicating that these EBs have differentiated into functional cardiomyocytes. The cardiomyocytes generated using this liquid marble approach could be useful for transplantation