Native plants tessaria absinthioides and prosopis strombulifera modulates the proliferation and estradiol receptor expression on the endometrial cell line ECC-1

PENA, VA; CASTRO, C; QUESADA, I; GAMARRA-LUQUE, C; HAPON, B

Congreso; XXXIX Reunión Científica Anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2021

Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo

Herbal medicine is regarded as a substitute or complement to occidental medicine. However, a limited number of medicinal herbs have been tested scientifically for their safety. In the province of Mendoza, folk medicine describes more than five hundred species used in the care and preservation of health. Our previous results demonstrated that the aqueous extract of the native plants Prosopis strombulifera (Ps) and Tessaria absinthioides (Ta) exhibit glycemic and lipid-lowering, antiatherosclerotic, antimitogenic, and antitumor activity. Other authors suggest that Prosopis sp. displays a phytoestrogenic effect resembling the isoflavones genistein and daidzein. Their administration altered the estrous cycle, uterine morphology, and sexual receptivity in female rats. On the other hand, no studies of the genus Tessaria have been reported in relation to reproduction. The main hypothesis of this presentation is that there are active molecules in the aqueous extracts of Ps and Ta that display phytoestrogenic effects. To test this hypothesis, we proposed to evaluate in vitro, on a human endometrial cancer cell line (ECC-1), the proliferation, toxicity, and modulation of steroid receptors in response to treatment with Ps and Ta extracts. Proliferation and toxicity were evaluated by MTT and the expression of steroid receptors by RTqPCR, comparing the treatment Ps and Ta extracts to the effect of estradiol on the ECC-1 cell line. Ps extract exerts a dual effect on proliferation, it slightly increases the proliferation of ECC-1 cells at low concentrations (< 0.5 μg/mL) and strongly inhibits proliferation at higher concentrations (IC50 = 2.30 ug/mL). Ta extract also displays a dual effect on proliferation, it increases the proliferation of ECC-1 cells at concentrations lower than < 2 μg/mL and hinders proliferation at higher concentrations (IC50 = 12.49 μg/mL). We next evaluated the effect of the extracts on viability. Our results showed that the higher dose that does not affect viability is 0.5 μg/mL for Ps and 6 μg/mL for Ta. These doses were used to evaluate the impact of the extracts on the modulation of steroid receptors. Ps extract increased the expression of estradiol receptor ER2 (P > 0.05), while Ta increased the expression of both estrogen receptors ER1 and 2 (P > 0.05). We can conclude that the aqueous extract of the native plants Ps and Ta, affects the proliferation of endometrial cells and modulates the expression of estrogen receptors in vitro. Thus, the use of phytochemicals for desired biological effects must be handled with care due to their possible effects on reproductive physiology.