Ellagic acid induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis through TGF-β/Smad3 signaling pathway in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells

Breast cancer represents the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women worldwide and preventive therapy could reverse or delay the devastating impact of this disease. Ellagic acid (EA), a dietary flavonoid polyphenol which is present in abundance in pomegranate, muscadine grapes, walnuts and strawberries, has been shown to inhibit cancer cells proliferation and induce apoptosis. Here, we investigated the growth inhibitory effects of EA on MCF-7 breast cancer cells. In the present study, we first found that EA inhibits the proliferation of MCF-7 breast cancer cells mainly mediated by arresting cell cycle in the G0/G1 phase. Moreover, gene expression profiling of MCF-7 breast cancer cell line treated with EA for 6, 12 and 24 h was performed using cDNA microarray. A total of 4,738 genes were found with a >2.0-fold change after 24 h of EA treatment. Among these genes, 2,547 were downregulated and 2,191 were upregulated. Furthermore, the changes of 16 genes, which belong to TGF-beta/Smads signaling pathway, were confirmed by real-time RT-PCR and/or western blot analysis. TGF-beta/Smads signaling pathway was found as the potential molecular mechanism of EA to regulate breast cancer cell cycle arrest in vitro. Therefore, the regulation of TGF-beta/Smads pathway in breast cancer cells could be a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of patients with breast cancer. Further studies with in vitro models, as well as an analysis of additional human samples, are still needed to confirm the molecular mechanisms of EA in inhibition or prevention of breast cancer growth.