Effects of polygonum aviculare herbal extract on proliferation and apoptotic gene expression of MCF-7

BACKGROUND AND THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: One of the most common malignancies in women is breast cancer. Although several treatments for breast cancer are available, application of herbal medicine as a supplementary treatment is a new option to help curing the disease. In this study anticancer effects of Polygonum avicular herbal extract was investigated. METHODS: Polygonum avicular extract was obtained by methanol. MCF-7 cell line was treated with different concentrations of Polygonum avicular (50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300,350 400 ng/μl) for different time lengths ( 6, 12, 24, and 48 hrs). MTT assay and Flow Cytometry were used to evaluate cell proliferation and apoptosis, respectively. RT-PCR was also carried out to evaluate the expression of apoptotic genes. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Results showed that Polygonum avicular induced cytotoxicity in MCF-7 cell line at concentrations higher than 300 ng/μl and this was confirmed by the highest rate of cell death as measured by Trypan Blue and MTT assays. RT-PCR results showed up-regulation of P53 and down-regulation of Bcl-2 proteins which implied the ability of Polygonum avicular to induce apoptosis in MCF-7 cells and confirmed its anticancer property. Further studies are required to evaluate effects of the extract on other apoptotic genes.     

The Effects of Job Insecurity,Emotional Exhaustion,and Met Expectations on Hotel Employees’ Pro-Environmental Behaviors: Test of a Serial Mediation Model

There are a plethora of empirical pieces about employees’ pro-environmental behaviors. However, the extant literature has either ignored or not fully examined various factors (e.g., negative or positive non-green workplace factors) that might affect employees’ pro-environmental behaviors. Realizing these voids, the present paper proposes and tests a serial mediation model that examines the interrelationships of job insecurity, emotional exhaustion, met expectations, and proactive pro-environmental behavior. We used data gathered from hotel customer-contact employees with a time lag of one week and their direct supervisors in China. After presenting support for the psychometric properties of the measures via confirmatory analysis in LISREL 8.30, the abovementioned linkages were gauged using the PROCESS plug-in for statistical package for social sciences. The findings delineated support for the hypothesized associations. Specifically, emotional exhaustion and met expectations partly mediated the effect of job insecurity on proactive pro-environmental behavior. More importantly, emotional exhaustion and met expectations serially mediated the influence of job insecurity on proactive pro-environmental behavior. These findings have important theoretical implications as well as significant implications for diminishing job insecurity, managing emotional exhaustion, increasing met expectations, and enhancing eco-friendly behaviors.