Chios Mastic Gum Extracts as a Potent Antitumor Agent that Inhibits Growth and Induces Apoptosis of Oral Cancer Cells

Purpose: The purpose was to investigate Chios mastic gum (CMG) extract as an potential anti-tumor agentfor oral squamous cell carcinoma in vitro.
Methods: We designed a study to examine the effects of CMG extractson growth of oral squamous cell carcinoma cell line, YD-10B and to determine whether the extracts could induceapoptosis through the activation of caspase-3, using the common chemotherapeutic agent Paclitaxel (Taxol,Bristol-Myers Squibb) as a control.
Results: MTT assay suggested that both CMG and Taxol inhibited theproliferation of YD-10B cells in a time and dose dependent manner. Moreover, 10μg/mL of CMG and 50μg/mLof Taxol caused fragmentation of the genomic DNA at 24 hour. Finally, 10μg/mL of CMG and 50μg/mL of Taxolcaused cleavage of procaspase-3 in western blot analysis.
Conclusions: These results suggest CMG’s potentialas an anti-tumor agent.