Effect of Celergen, a marine derivative, on in vitro hepatocarcinogenesis

The aim of this study was to test for a potential anticarcinogenic effect of Celergen, a marine derivative devoid of traceable amounts of inorganic arsenic, on cell proliferation, cell cycle progression and apoptosis in the HepG2 human liver cancer cell line. Celergen significantly inhibited the proliferation of cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner while limiting the cell cycle progression at the G1 phase and significantly inducing apoptosis. Further examination showed that Celergen enhanced expression of the p21(CIPl1WAF1), GADD153 genes and downregulated the c-myc gene. These results suggest that Celergen exerts promising chemopreventive properties to be further investigated.