A comparison of the morphological changes associated with conventional and sustained treatment with pigallocatechin3gallate, thymoquinone, and tannic acid on lncap cells.

A number of epidemiological studies have suggested that certain antioxidants, such as vitamin E, lycopene, selenium, and their derivatives may be effective in combating prostate cancer and decreasing the risk of prostate cancer in men as well as other cancers in the body. Ongoing research has been targeted towards examining these agents in specific populations and in prostate epithelial cell lines to determine whether risk is reduced and the magnitude of risk reduction (Ni et al., 2007 and Morrissey et al., 2007). In this study, three antioxidants, epigallocatehin -3-gallate (EGCG), thymoquinone (TQ), and tannic acid (TA) were analyzed to observe their morphological responses to both conventional and sustained treatment with both low and high doses of EGCG, TQ, and TA at 24, 48, and 72 hours. Cells treated with high doses of EGCG and TQ were fewer in number and irregular in appearance in comparison to the control cells after 48 and 72 hours of incubation. Sustained treatment with EGCG, TQ, TA, and TCP demonstrated the greatest reduction in cell number in comparison to the control and other groups in the study. Overall findings of this study demonstrated that conventional and sustained treatment with the antioxidants EGCG, TQ, TA, and TCP suppressed cell number as well as cell growth by causing disruptions in certain cell-cycle checkpoints. The results of this study also demonstrated that antioxidants may be excellent candidates with chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic properties against various cancers. Since understanding is limited regarding the processes involved in cancer initiation and growth, more research is needed in this era so that physicians caring for men and women with various types of cancer can be aware of these remedies and provide further avenues for treatment and managing the disease.