Maslinic acid derivatives induce significant apoptosis in b16f10 murine melanoma cells

Maslinic acid (2α,3β-dihydroxyolean-12-en-28-oic acid), a natural dihydroxylated pentacyclic triterpene acid isolated from olive-pressing residues, has been investigated together with some of its derivatives regarding the induction of apoptosis in B16F10 melanoma cells. Some of the compounds tested are described in this work, but others come from previous studies. Ten of these derivatives induce over 80% of apoptosis, clearly promoting cell death in B16F10 melanoma. By contrast, the induction cell death through necrosis was very slightly significant with these compounds. These results indicate that maslinic acid derivatives are promising chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agents.

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► Ten compounds (3, 10–12, 14, 15, 18–21) exhibit total apoptosis over 80% at concentration of 30 μM
► Most compounds tested present very low necrosis (less than 10%).
► The early apoptosis represent over 90% of total apoptosis in most of these compounds.
► Compounds 11, 12 and 18 show significant apoptotic activities (70% or more) at concentration of 1 μM for 24 h.