The effects of betamethasone dipropionate and fish oil on HaCaT proliferation and apoptosis.

The current work examined the effect of fish oil (FO) and betamethasone dipropionate (BD) on the growth of immortalized HaCaT keratinocytes. HaCaT cells were grown and treated with FO and/or BD, and proliferation determined using the MTT method. The cells were further probed by immunocytochemistry (ICC) techniques for apoptosis using Cleaved Caspase-3 Asp175, and inflammatory processes using cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). The addition of FO increased the inhibition of HaCaT cells by 27.2%, from 43.15% to 70.35% compared to BD alone (p 0.034). FO alone appeared to induce expression of Asp175 and the effect was greater in combination with BD. The net effect, however, were less than BD alone. Similar observations were seen with regards to COX-2 inhibition. The added benefits of FO to the effect of BD on the inhibition of cell growth, induction of apoptosis and inhibition of inflammation have now been demonstrated on a cellular level. Each of these activities supports beneficial effects in hyperproliferative skin disorders, such as psoriasis.