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Background & objectives: Allium cepa has anti-cancer, anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties due to flavonoid compounds. Allium cepa can prevent the onset and progression of cancer by removing free radicals. In this study, the preventive effect of Allium cepa in preventing the proliferation of breast cancer cells in BALB/c mice was evaluated.
Methods: In the present study, Female BALB/c mice at 6–7 weeks of age were subjected to the abdominal mammary gland subcutaneous injection with 5×10⁶ viable 4T1 cells. Eight mice were placed in 3 groups: healthy group, the patient without treatment and the experimental group. The experimental group received Allium cepa root juice, three weeks before induction of disease. Daily, each mouse in the experimental group received 0.1 ml / 100 g BW / day fresh Allium cepa root juice. Seven weeks after induction, the mice were exposed to deep anesthesia. During the test, the mice were weighed every other day and after the appearance of the tumor, by the end of the seventh week, the volume of the tumor was measured using digital caliper and the tumor mass was removed and weighed. The spleen was removed from the body and cultured in 1640-RPMI medium containing 10%, FBS, and ELISA test was used to measure IFN-γ and IL-4 levels. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software version 18. One-way variance analysis was used to assess the difference between the groups and, if it was significant, Tukey's post hoc test was employed to determine the differences between the groups. Also, p-value less than 0.05 were considered as the level of significance for examining the hypothesis test and deciding whether or not to reject the hypothesis.
Results: The weight of mice in all three groups increased and tumor weight and tumor volume decreased significantly in the experimental group compared to the patient group (sham) (p<0.001, p<0.0001 respectively). In the experimental group, compared with the patient group, the levels of IFN-γ (p<0.001) and IL-4 levels decreased significantly (p<0.001).
Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, the use of Allium cepa can prevent and reduce the growth and proliferation of cancer cells and disease progression in breast cancer mouse model.