Aloe emodin, an anthraquinone of Aloe barbadensis Miller has been shown to have more cytotoxic effect in
different kinds of human cancer cell lines compared to normal. Accordingly, we found it to selectively inhibit
the proliferation of oestrogen-receptor-positive-(ER+)-breast cancer cells, MCF-7; but not controls cells,
MCF-10A. However, its precise mechanism is not well understood. Several studies have shown that there is
evidence of increased intracellular calcium (Ca2+), both at early and late stage of apoptosis which associated
with the down-regulation of ERK1/2 proliferative pathway. Therefore, we aim to elucidate the involvement
of intracellular Ca2+ in aloe emodin induced apoptosis on MCF-7. Apoptotic morphological changes were
observed under fluorescence microscope. The involvement of cytoplasmic Ca2+ and MAPKs were investigated
using Fluo-4 intracellular Ca2+ imaging and QuantiGene 2.0 Plex assay, respectively. IC50 of aloe emodin
(80 μM) at 72 hours incubation was used. Data were evaluated using the one-way or two-way ANOVA tests.
Our results indicated that aloe emodin at IC50 80µM induced apoptosis on MCF-7 through the association of
intracellular Ca2+ signalling. This observation include a significant increased (p
A cross sectional descriptive study of 2048 subjects was conducted to determine the prevalence of depression and factors influencing depression among students in secondary school from urban and rural areas in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The children's depression inventory (CDI) developed by Maria Kovacs was used in this study. Students who participated in this study come from two urban schools and three rural schools. It was found that in the yield for scores for five factors were 9.2% have negative mood, 5% have interpersonal problems, 8.3% have ineffectiveness, 9.8% have anhedonia and 10.6% have negative self esteem. Following the interpretive guidelines for the T-scores, it was found that 10.3% of the students were much above average in the depression scale. This study also found that: 1% of students were smoking, 1.6% of students were gum sniffling, 0.9% took drugs, 4.1% took alcohol and 9.9% took things from other people. Females were more depressed than males. The Chinese students were more depressed compared to Indian students. Students whose parents had no formal education or had only primary education were more depressed than students whose parents had secondary, college or university education. Depression increased with increasing number of siblings. Depression contributed to the habit of drug abuse, gum sniffing and stealing but not to smoking and alcohol abuse. Suicidal tendencies were more likely among the depressed students. It is imperative that not only caregivers but also teachers have to be equipped with the knowledge, attitude and skills to assist secondary school children cope with their emotions, handle conflicts and manage stress early so that a more productive society will develop in the future.