Fraxetin (Fra)

Fraxetin is an O-methylated coumarin. Estrogen signaling pathways play an important role in the regulation of the physiological function of breast cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis. The article used MTT assay, flow cytometer analysis and Western blot to detect the inhibition of fraxetin on MCF-7 cell cycle distribution and apoptosis, ERα, cyclin D1 and Bcl-2 expression levels, MAPK and PI3K signaling pathway to investigate the mechanism of anti-breast cancer of fraxetin. The results showed fraxetin inhibited E2β-stimulated MCF-7 cell proliferation in a dose- and time-dependent manner, reversed E2β-induced anti-apoptosis and promoted G0/G1 phase arrest. After treatment with fraxetin, the expression of ERα in MCF-7 cell was decreased, and estrogen genomic signaling pathway was inhibited by down-regulating the expression of cyclin D1 and Bcl-2 proteins.