Curcumin is a phytochemicals which is able to inhibit carcinogenesis in a variety of cell lines. However little is known about its effect on the cell-surface and the interaction between cell-surface and the reacting drug. In this study, we found that curcumin could inhibit the growth of human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line (HepG2), change the cell-surface morphology and trigger the pro-apoptotic factor to promote cell apoptosis. Cell counting kit results indicated that the cell viability had a dose-dependent relationship with the curcumin concentration in 24h. The 50% inhibiting concentration (IC50) was 17.5±3.2μM. It was clear that curcumin could lead to apoptosis, and the apoptosis increased as the reacting concentration goes up. Moreover, curcumin could also affect the disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential and the disturbance of intracellular free Ca(2+) concentration. All these alterations changed the cell morphology and cell-surface ultrastructure with atomic force microscopy (AFM) detecting at nanoscale level. AFM results indicated that cells in control group clearly revealed a typical long spindle-shaped morphology. Cell tails was wide and unrolled. The ultrastructure showed that cell membrane was made up of many nanoparticles. After being treated with curcumin, cell tail was narrowed. The size of membrane nanoparticles became small. These results can improve our understanding of curcumin which can be potentially developed as a new agent for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma since it has been reported to have a low cytotoxic effect on healthy cell. AFM can be used as a powerful tool for detecting ultrastructures.
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