Treatment of a Mixture of Local lactobacillus Strains on Hep G2 Cell line: Contradictory Effects on Three Selected Cytokine Expressions

Introduction and Objectives: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the 6th human cancer with high morbidity and mortality rates. Owing to the recent significance of anticancer effects of probiotics in various types of human cancers, and the critical roles of cytokines in modulation of carcinogenesis, we aimed to determine the effect of supernatant mix of probiotics on the level of three main cytokines genes and proteins. Materials and Methods: HepG2 cell line was treated with different concentrations of mix supernatant isolated from three lactibacillus strains and MRL/MRS broth mediums as negative control. MTT assay was performed to assess cell viability, 24 hours following treatment. Reverse transcriptase real time PCR (RT-Real time PCR) and ELISA were implicated to determine the level of mRNA and proteins of IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-α expression. Results: MTT results demonstrated no significant decrease in HepG2 cells viability in response to mix supernatant treatment. IL-1β and TNF-α genes and proteins expression have been shown to be significantly decreased following 48 hours of treatment while the expression of IL-6 gene and protein were inconsistent. Conclusion: Although mix of lactobacillus supernatant was not meaningfully cytotoxic, dramatic changes in cytokines expression potentially toward cancer cell proliferation may indicate the possibility of using the suggested probiotic mixture in complementary treatment of HCC which demands further investigations.