Curcumin-induced histone acetylation in malignant hematologic cells

This study investigated the inhibitory effects of curcumin on proliferation of hemato-logical malignant cells in vitro and the anti-tumor mechanism at histone acetylation/histone deacety-lation levels.The effects of curcumin and histone deacetylase inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA) on the growth of Raji cells were tested by MTT assay.The expression of acetylated histone-3 (H3) in Raji,HL60 and K562 cells,and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) treated with curcumin or TSA was detected by immunohistochemistry and FACS.The results showed curcumin inhibited pro-liferation of Raji cells significantly in a time- and dose-dependent fashion,while exhibited low toxic-ity in PBMCs.Curcumin induced up-regulation of the expression of acetylated H3 dose-dependently in all malignant cell lines tested.In conclusion,curcumin inhibited proliferation of Raji cells selec-tively,enhanced the level of acetylated H3 in Raji,HL60,and K562 cells,which acted as a histone deacetylase inhibitor like TSA.Furthermore,up-regulation of H3 acetylation may play an important role in regulating the proliferation of Raji cells.