• Effects of Boswellic Acid on the Cellular Toxicity and Proliferation of Glioblastoma Cell line
  • Hamid Reza Moradi,1 Zabihollah Khaksar ,2 Sajad Sahabnegah ,3 Ghadir Rajabzadeh ,4 Sahar Salehi ,5 Gholamhossein Tondro ,6,*
    1. Department of Basic sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
    2. Department of Basic sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
    3. Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
    4. Department of Food Nanotechnology, Research Institute of Food Science and Technology, Mashhad, Iran
    5. Department of Food Nanotechnology, Research Institute of Food Science and Technology, Mashhad, Iran.
    6. Department of pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran


  • Introduction: Glioblastoma is one of the common subtype of primary brain tumors that has a higher mortality rate among the deadliest of human cancers. Boswellic acid (BSA) is a series of pentacyclic triterpene molecules that is isolated from the gum resin of Boswellia serrata. Medical properties of the BSA have previously been shown against various chronic diseases. This study investigated the effects of the BA on glioblastoma cell line (GCL) proliferation through MTT assay.
  • Methods: Glioblastoma cell line (1×104/well) were seeded in 96-well culture plates and kept at 37 °C in a humidified incubator (5% CO2) overnight. These cells were incubated with various concentration of BSA for the next 24, 48 and 72 h. After that, 10 μl of the MTT solution in PBS (5 mg/ml) was added to each well at a final concentration of 0.05%. After 4 h, the supernatant was removed and to dissolve the formazan crystals, 100 μl of dimethyl sulfoxide was added to each well. Then, the microplates were gently shaken in the dark for 60 min and the absorbance was assessed between 550 nm by a plate reader.
  • Results: Results showed that BSA significantly inhibited the proliferation of GCL in a concentration-time pattern. The IC50 value of BSA on GCL was 67μg/ml after 24 h, which decreased to 51μg/ml after 48 h and 48μg/ml after 72 h.
  • Conclusion: Summary, results of the current study shown that boswellic acid have the effect of cellular toxicity and inhibition of proliferation on glioblastoma cell line (U87) in a concentration-time pattern.
  • Keywords: Boswellic acid; Glioblastoma Cell Line (U87); MTT assay; Proliferation