Skip to Content
Merck
  • Concentration-Dependent Pro- and Antitumor Activities of Quercetin in Human Melanoma Spheroids: Comparative Analysis of 2D and 3D Cell Culture Models.

Concentration-Dependent Pro- and Antitumor Activities of Quercetin in Human Melanoma Spheroids: Comparative Analysis of 2D and 3D Cell Culture Models.

Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) (2021-02-13)
Harald Hundsberger, Anna Stierschneider, Victoria Sarne, Doris Ripper, Jasmin Schimon, Hans Peter Weitzenböck, Dominik Schild, Nico Jacobi, Andreas Eger, Josef Atzler, Christian T Klein, Christoph Wiesner
ABSTRACT

Quercetin, a dietary flavonoid found in fruits and vegetables, has been described as a substance with many anti-cancer properties in a variety of preclinical investigations. In the present study, we demonstrate that 2D and 3D melanoma models exhibit not only different sensitivities to quercetin, but also opposite, cancer-promoting effects when metastatic melanoma spheroids are treated with quercetin. Higher concentrations of quercetin reduce melanoma growth in three tested cell lines, whereas low concentrations induce the opposite effect in metastatic melanoma spheroids but not in the non-metastatic cell line. High (>12.5 µM) or low (<6.3 µM) quercetin concentrations decrease or enhance cell viability, spheroid size, and cell proliferation, respectively. Additionally, melanoma cells cultivated in 2D already show significant caspase 3 activity at very low concentrations (>0.4 µM), whereas in 3D spheroids apoptotic cells, caspase 3 activity can only be detected in concentrations ≥12.5 µM. Further, we show that the tumor promoting or repressing effect in the 3D metastatic melanoma spheroids are likely to be elicited by a precisely controlled regulation of Nrf2/ARE-mediated cytoprotective genes, as well as ERK and NF-κB phosphorylation. According to the results obtained here, further studies are needed to better characterize the mechanisms of action underlying the pro- and anti-carcinogenic effects of quercetin on human melanomas.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Sigma-Aldrich
Quercetin, ≥95% (HPLC), solid
Sigma-Aldrich
Insulin solution human, sterile-filtered, BioXtra, suitable for cell culture
Sigma-Aldrich
Sodium bicarbonate solution, solution (7.5%), sterile-filtered, BioReagent, suitable for cell culture
Sigma-Aldrich
MCDB 153 Medium, With trace elements, L-glutamine and 28mM HEPES, without sodium bicarbonate, powder, suitable for cell culture
Sigma-Aldrich
Calcium chloride solution, BioUltra, for molecular biology, ~1 M in H2O
Sigma-Aldrich
Resveratrol, ≥99% (HPLC)
Sigma-Aldrich
(−)-Epigallocatechin gallate, ≥95%
Sigma-Aldrich
L-15 Medium (Leibovitz), With L-glutamine, liquid, sterile-filtered, suitable for cell culture