Naringenin exerts anticancer effects by inducing tumor cell death and inhibiting angiogenesis in malignant melanoma

Malignant melanoma is one of the most deadly skin cancer, due to its aggressive proliferation and metastasis. Naringenin, abundantly present in citrus fruits, has widely studied in cancer therapy. In this study, we investigated whether naringenin also has anticancer effects against B16F10 murine and SK-MEL-28 human melanoma cells. Moreover, we assessed the effects of naringenin treatment on angiogenesis of HUVECs and ex vivo sprouting of microvessels.Naringenin inhibited tumor cell proliferation and migration in a dose-dependent manner in B16F10 and SK-MEL-28 cells, which is supported by the results that phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and JNK MAPK decreased. Furthermore, naringenin induced cell apoptosis. Western blot analysisshowed naringenin treatment significantly upregulated the protein expression of activated cas3 and PARP in B16F10 and SK-MEL-28 cells. In addition, in vitro and ex vivo angiogenesis assays demonstrated that naringenin treatment potently suppressed EC migration, tube formation, and sprouting of microvessels. RT-PCR analysis showed that naringenin treatment significantly reduced the mRNA expression of Tie2, but did not inhibit the expression of Ang2. In conclusion, present study demonstrates the anticancer effects of naringenin by its induction of tumor cell death and inhibition of angiogenesis in malignant melanoma, suggesting that naringenin has potential as a safe and effective therapeutic agent to treat melanoma.