The effect of Hashemi brown and white rice extracts and γ-oryzanol on proliferation and estrogenic activity induced by zearalenone in MCF-7 cells

Abstract

Zearalenone, an estrogenic mycotoxin, is widely exists in rice and agricultural products. Zearalenone has side effects on animal’s reproduction and immunologic functions. Moreover, it can stimulate the proliferation of MCF-7 cells through estrogenic effects. The aim of this research is to understand the interactive effect of zearalenone and bioactive components of Hashemi brown and white rice extracts and γ-oryzanol on proliferation of MCF-7 cell, which were determined through Resazurin assay, ROS generation and flow cytometry. Results showed that zearalenone (10^− 4 to 1 µM) could stimulate the proliferation of MCF-7 cells. The results showed that the various fractions of Hashemi brown (methanol, ethyl acetate and butanol) extracts, white rice (methanol, dichloromethane and ethylacetate) extracts and γ-Oryzanol could significantly decrease the estrogenic effects and as a consequence inhibit the proliferation of MCF-7 cells. So that, methanol, butanol and ethylacetate fractions of brown rice and γ-oryzanol significantly alleviate the cell proliferative effect of zearalenone (0.01 µM) from 1.17 ± 0.0063 to 0.97 ± 0.0064, 0.97 ± 0.006, 1.01 ± 0.004 and 0.97 ± 0.009, respectively. γ-Oryzanol and hashemi brown and white rice could also decrease the ROS generation and apoptosis rate in MCF-7 cells induced by zearalenone. Thus, it seems the estrogenic and cytotoxic effect of zearalenone may be modulated when the whole rice is used and rice extract protect against the harm of zearalenone.

Graphical abstract