OBJECTIVE: In many preclinical studies, curcumin has been anticarcinogenic in several cancer types. In line with these findings, this research aims to investigate the effects of curcumin on cytotoxicity, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), glutathione (GSH), intracellular reactive oxygen species generation (iROS), apoptosis, and DNA damage in breast cancer cell lines.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, the cytotoxic effect of curcumin concentrations (5-100 µM) on human mammary gland cancer cell lines (MCF7 and MDA MB231), mammary gland breast/epithelium healthy cell line (184A1) was determined by the colorimetric MTT assay, and the genotoxic effect was determined by alkaline single gel electrophoresis (Comet Assay) method. Its apoptotic effect was determined by the Acridine Orange/Ethidium Bromide (AO/EB) method. In addition, intracellular ROS (iROS) and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) levels were measured with the fluorometric method, and glutathione (GSH) levels were measured with the luminometric method.

RESULTS: Our study demonstrated that treated curcumin concentrations significantly decreased cell viability, GSH, and MMP levels and increased ROS, apoptosis, and DNA damage in MCF7 and MDA MB231 and 184A1 cells in a dose-dependent manner (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: The findings confirmed that curcumin cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and apoptosis in mammary gland cancer cells induce increased intracellular ROS and decrease GSH and MMP. Therefore, it was concluded that curcumin has anticancer activity, which is highly potentially an anticancer drug.