Effect of Sesamol on Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cell Line In Vitro Study

Abstract

In recent years, natural products are becoming an important research area for drug discovery. Many active phytochemicals are in human clinical trials. Phytochemicals and dietary compounds have been used for the treatment of cancer due to their safety, low toxicity and general availability. Sesamol is a nutritional phenolic compound found in sesame seeds and sesame oil. Sesamol has many biological effects such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, radio-protective effects against DNA damage, inhibition of atherosclerosis progression in addition to anticancer effects through different mechanisms. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of sesamol on head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell line (HEp-2 cell line), evaluate the cytological changes that might occur in sesamol treated cells in comparison to untreated control cells, analyse the nuclear morphometric changes of sesamol treated cells and investigate the occurrence of DNA fragmentation with different sesamol concentrations at different durations. The study utilized MTT assay to identify the effect of sesamol on the viability of HEp-2 cells using different sesamol concentrations (0.39, 1.56, 6.25, 25 and 100 uM) over different durations (24 and 48 hours). The IC50 of sesamol was then calculated and sesamol concentrations less and higher than IC50 were used. The study also depended on cytological evaluation to identify the presence of morphological hallmarks of apoptosis in sesamol treated cells.