Procyanidin from peanut skin induces antiproliferative effect in human prostate carcinoma cells DU145

In this study, the antiproliferative activity of peanut skin procyanidins (PSP) and six fractions (PSP-1∼6) isolated from PSP by several chromatographic steps on the human prostate cancer DU145 cells were evaluated. The results showed that PSP and PSP-1∼6 significantly inhibited the proliferation of DU145 cells. PSP-2 was the most effective fraction, which was identified as procyanidin B3 mainly and procyanidin dimer [(E)C-luteolin or keampferol] secondarily. Moreover, the mechanism of antiproliferative activity of PSP-2 was investigated. It was observed that PSP-2 induced apoptotic cell death and cell cycle arrest at S phase in DU145 cells. PSP-2 caused the increase of intracellular ROS level and the decrease of Bcl-2/Bax ratio, and triggered the activation of p53 and caspases-3 in DU145 cells. Our findings demonstrated that procyanidins from peanut skin have the potential to be developed as an anti-prostate cancer agent.