Litchi Seed Aqueous Extracts play a role in suppression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, invasion and migration in breast cancer cells.

We carried out this study to unravel the function of Litchi Seed Aqueous Extracts (LSAE) on biological functions of breast cancer (BC) cells. MTT assay was adopted to measure proliferation of BC cells (MCF7, BT474 and MDA-MB-231) and normal mammary cells (MCF10A) under different time points (24, 48 and 72 h) and different concentrations (50, 100, 200 and 400 μg/mL). MCF-7 cells were selected for subsequent experiments and were grouped into blank group, negative control (NC) group, low-, medium- and high-dose LSAE (L-LSAE, M-LSAE, H-LSAE) groups. Cell viability, invasion, migration and apoptosis were measured by functional assays. Low dosage of LSAE (50 and 100 μg/mL) enhanced proliferation of MCF10A cells, while high dosage of LSAE (200 and 400 μg/mL) suppressed proliferation of MCF10A cells. The proliferation inhibition rate in BT474 and MDA-MB-231cells was increased relative to that in MCF7 cells. MCF-7 cells in the L-LSAE, M-LSAE and H-LSAE groups were rounded and epithelial-like, in which cell survival rate, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), invasion and migration abilities were reduced versus the blank and NC groups. The tendency in the H-LSAE group was substantially obvious than those in the L-LSAE and M-LSAE groups (both P < 0.05). We found that LSAE is able to inhibit EMT, invasion and migration in BC cells based on concentration and time.