Cytotoxicity and antiangiogenic effects of Rhus coriaria, Pistacia vera and Pistacia khinjuk oleoresin methanol extracts

Angiogenesis, formation of new blood vessels, play an important role in some diseases such as cancer and its metastasis. Using angiogenesis inhibitors, therefore, is one of the ways for cancer treatment and prevention of metastasis. Medicinal plants have been shown to play a major role in the treatment of a variety of cancers. In this direction, cytotoxic and angiogenic effects of oleo gum resin extracts of Rhus coriaria, Pistacia vera and Pistacia khinjuk from Anacardiaceae family were studied. For IC(50) values, cytotoxic effects of the plant extracts were evaluated at different concentrations (1, 10, 20, 40, 80,100 μg/ml) against human umbilical vein endothelial normal cell (HUVEC) and Y79 cell lines using 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. In vitro tube formation on matrigel base was used to evaluate angiogenic effects in the presence of increasing concentrations (50, 100, 250 μg/ml) of the extracts. Vascular endothelium growth factor was used as angiogenesis stimulator. Gas chromatography results showed that α-pinene and β-pinene were the major essential oils constituents of all plant extracts. According to the MTT assay results, the R. coriaria resin extract was more cytotoxic than those of P. vera and P. khinjuk extracts (IC(50), 9.1 ± 1.6 vs 9.8 ± 2.1 and 12.0 ± 1.9, respectively; P<0.05). Cytotoxic effects of all extracts against Y79 cell line was significantly higher than those of HUVEC used as a normal cell line (P<0.05). Tube formation assay also showed that extract of R. coriaria resin inhibited angiogenesis more significantly than other tested extracts (P<0.05). It could be concluded that R. coriaria resin extract possess cytotoxic effect and antiangiogenesis against cancer cells and as an anticancer natural product has a good potential for future studies.