Abstract

Abstract Background Colorectal cancer (CRC), with a growing incidence trend worldwide, is resistant to apoptosis and has uncontrolled proliferation. It is recently reported that probiotic microorganisms exert anticancer effects. The genus Bifidobacterium , one of the dominant bacterial populations in the gastrointestinal tract, has received increasing attention because of widespread interest in using it as health-promoting microorganisms. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess the apoptotic effects of some bifidobacteria species on colon cancer cell lines. Methods The cytotoxicity evaluations performed using MTT assay and FACS-flow cytometry tests. Also, the effects of five species of bifidobacteria secretion metabolites on the expression level of anti- or pro-apoptotic genes including BAD, Bcl-2, Caspase-3, Caspase-8, Caspase-9, and Fas-R studied by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. Results The cell-free supernatant of all studied bifidobacteria significantly decreased the survival rates of colon cancer cells compared with control groups. Flow cytometric and RT-PCR results indicated that apoptosis is induced by bifidobacteria secretion metabolites and the mechanism for the action of bifidobacteria species in CRC prevention could be down-regulation and up-regulation of anti-apoptotic and, pro-apoptotic genes. Conclusions In the present study, different bifidobacteria species showed anticancer activity on colorectal cancer cells through down-regulation and up-regulation of anti-apoptotic and pro-apoptotic genes. However, further studies are required to clarify the exact mechanism of apoptosis induction by bifidobacteria species.