The Effects of Ovalbumin on Proliferation, Migration, and Stemness Properties of Chemoresistant SW480 Colon Cancer Cells

Abstract

Egg peptides are factors in the embryonic environment with many significant biological activities, such as anticancer activity. Therefore, the current study investigates the effect of egg ovalbumin (OVA) on survival, cell cycle, self-renewal ability, stemness properties, and migration in SW480 colon cancer cells and 5-fluorouracil (5FU) resistant subgroup. MTT test was performed to assess cell viability. Flow cytometry was employed to analyze the cell cycle. Clonogenic assay and spheroid formation were used to assess the effect of OVA on self-renewal and stemness properties. Wound healing assay and RT-PCR were performed to analyze migration and gene mRNA expression. We demonstrated that OVA (8 and 12 mg/ml) attenuated cell viability, induced cell-cycle arrest, inhibited colony formation, and non-significantly reduced spheroid formation and migration in both cell lines. Furthermore, OVA downregulated the expression of Nanog, c-Myc, and NDRG1 in both cells, suggesting a stemness and self-renewal attenuation by OVA. In conclusion, OVA exposure inhibited the 5FU-SW480 chemo-resistant subpopulation growth by inducing cell cycle arrest and diminishing self-renewal and partially stemness properties of colon cancer cells.

Acknowledgments

The present authors would like to express their gratitude to all in the Cellular and Molecular department of National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute, Faculty of Nutrition Science and Food Technology Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran for supporting this study.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute and Faculty of Nutrition and Food Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran under Grant [Project No. 768, Contract No. 311/1051].