Evaluation of antitumor efficacy and apoptosis induction in human renal carcinoma cells by resveratrol, indole-3-carbinol, and cordycepin supplements using fluorescence imaging techniques

We compared the effectiveness of antitumor effects and apoptosis induction on human renal cell carcinoma A498 extracts of cruciferous plant material (indole-3-carbinol), Chinese mushroom (cordycepin), French red wine (resveratrol) at low concentrations after 24 and 48 h using fluorescent methods of imaging apoptosis and necrosis in human tumor cells in vitro. Propidium iodide and acridine orange were used as dyes in the “alive and dead” test, which allowed us to detect the number of dead cells and cells in which apoptosis had started. It was found that indole-3-carbinol at low concentrations (0.0288 and 0.1152 mg/ml) has a pronounced cytotoxic and cytostatic activity against human kidney cancer cells, significantly exceeding the action of resveratrol at the same concentrations. At the same time, cordycepin has no cytotoxic and cytostatic activity at these concentrations. Indole-3-carbinol also has the most pronounced apoptotic activity at concentrations of 0.0144–0.1152 mg/ml, after 48 h the number of kidney cancer cells in apoptosis increases by 6.8–10 times compared to control. It is concluded that indole-3-carbinol is a promising antitumor agent for use in the complex therapy of patients with kidney cancer.