Iranian Journal of Fisheries Sciences 11(2) 283-293 2012 Anticancer effect of Dunaliella salina under stress and normal conditions against skin carcinoma cell line A431 in vitro

Dunaliella salina, a green microalga, has been consumed as food and medicine for a long time.The anti-oxidant and anticancer effects are related to more production of β- carotene under stress conditions compared with normal circumstances.The scope of this study was survey of anticancer effect of the ethanol extract of Dunaliella salina algae under stress(EDSS) and normal (EDSN) conditions on death rate of skin carcinoma cell line A431 by MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-y1)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] method in vitro. Our results showed that the β-carotene amount in stress situation was 1.46 times more than in normal condition.The cytotoxic effect of EDSS exposed to 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, 100 µg/ml in 6, 24, 48 h which was performed by MTT assay showed that there was a significant difference in the various time except in 6 h in both conditions.The results of compared death rate of A431cells exposed to various concentrations of EDSS and EDSN presented significant difference in 6, 24, and 48 h after exposure. The LC50 of EDSS in 24 and 48 h were 15.4 and 0.4 µg/ml, respectively and 478.6 and 46.4 µg/ml for EDSN