PLANT CELL BIOTECHNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Aims: In this paper, the pretreatment effects of electromagnetic fields on the anticancer properties of Nigella sativa L. were studied.
Study Design: It has been shown that electromagnetic fields can cause significant biological effects and its stimulatory effects may have influence on the growth and productivity and yield of the plant. Considering the point that breast cancer is the most common malignant cancer among women, it is the issue of the medicinal herbal effects of Nigella sativa L. on it has come to study.
Place and Duration of Study: Nigella sativa L. seeds prepared from Esfahan Pakan Bazr Co., Iran and Seeds were grown in, Esfahan, Iran then extraction and MTT assay was carried out in Tehran Univesity of Medical Sciences, Iran, between January 2012 and December 2012.
Methodology: In the study dry and wet seeds are exposed to two electromagnetic fields of 1.6 and 0.8 mT for 30 minutes and the resulting seedlings along with the other seeds which have not been treated are planted in pots and reached the reproductive stage and at the end an aqueous extract has been prepared of the seeds from these plants in this process. By examining the 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, cytotoxicity effects of these extracts on MCF7 (human breast cancer cells)were studied and a comparative study has been done.
Results: The reducing effects of the wet plants’ extracts were not significant while in contrast the MCF7 treated extracts of dry seeds caused a reduction in the viability of cancer cells (P<0.05).
Conclusion: As a result it is shown that the cytotoxicity effects of electromagnetic fields of the treated nigella seeds could increase the anticancer properties of these seeds in the MCF7 cell line.