Suppression of microtubule dynamic instability and turnover in MCF7 breast cancer cells by sulforaphane.

ABSTRACT: Sulforaphane (SFN), a prominent isothiocyanate present in cruciferous vegetables, is believed to be responsible along with other isothiocyanates for the cancer preventive activity of such vegetables. SFN arrests mitosis, possibly by affecting spindle microtubule function. A critical property of microtubules is their rapid and time-sensitive growth and shortening dynamics (dynamic instability), and suppression of dynamics by antimitotic anticancer drugs (e.g. taxanes and the vinca alkaloids) is central to the anticancer mechanisms of such drugs. We found that at concentrations that inhibited proliferation and mitosis of MCF7-green fluorescent protein-alpha-tubulin breast tumor cells by approximately 50% (~15 microM), SFN significantly modified microtubule organization in arrested spindles w

SUBMITTER: Azarenko O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2639247 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature