Previously, a plant steroid, diosgenin, altered cell cycle distribution and induced apoptosis in human osteosarcoma
cell line. The study objective was to investigate if antiproliferative effect of diosgenin was similar for human colon
cancer (Caco-2) cell. Moreover, this work focused on the mitochondrial pathway. Cells were incubated with diosgenin
concentrations, 60μM/L, 80μM/L, 100μM/L and 120μM/L for 72h at 37°C and 5%CO2. Diosgenin induced cells death in a dose-dependent manner. Diosgenin-treated cells had an important antiproliferative effect, additionally, a typical characteristics of apoptosis including DNA fragmentation which is caspase-3 dependent with caspase-3 over expression and fall of mitochondrial membrane potential which appeared by Bcl-2 expression down regulating, p53 activation as signal for cell cycle arrest and cytological alterations. Future study will may deal with further investigations of diosgenin possible usages as a new alternative or complementary chemotherapeutic agent for human cancer types specially colon cancer type.