Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Biosciences, Division of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Taylor's University, No. 1, Jln Taylor's, 47500 Subang Jaya, Malaysia
  • 2 Postgraduates, Research and Strategic Development, Taylor's University, No. 1, Jln Taylor's, 47500 Subang Jaya, Malaysia
PLoS One, 2015;10(3):e0121382.
PMID: 25816349 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0121382

Abstract

Glabridin is an isoflavan from licorice root, which is a common component of herbal remedies used for treatment of menopausal symptoms. Past studies have shown that glabridin resulted in favorable outcome similar to 17β-estradiol (17β-E2), suggesting a possible role as an estrogen replacement therapy (ERT). This study aims to evaluate the estrogenic effect of glabridin in an in-vitro endometrial cell line -Ishikawa cells via alkaline phosphatase (ALP) assay and ER-α-SRC-1-co-activator assay. Its effect on cell proliferation was also evaluated using Thiazoyl blue tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The results showed that glabridin activated the ER-α-SRC-1-co-activator complex and displayed a dose-dependent increase in estrogenic activity supporting its use as an ERT. However, glabridin also induced an increase in cell proliferation. When glabridin was treated together with 17β-E2, synergistic estrogenic effect was observed with a slight decrease in cell proliferation as compared to treatment by 17β-E2 alone. This suggest that the combination might be better suited for providing high estrogenic effects with lower incidences of endometrial cancer that is associated with 17β-E2.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.