Abstract
Background
Breast cancer reported in the young women exhibits high local and distant recurrence and a poor prognosis. Rare earth doped calcium phosphate phosphors have been extensively investigated due to their unique applications in biomedicine.
Methods
In the current study, Tb3+, Ce3+ doped Ca3(PO4)2 phosphor were prepared by hydrothermal method at 150 °C using citric acid as additive and characterized by PXRD, FT-IR, TG-DTA, EDX, TEM and PL techniques. The photoluminescence properties of Tb3+, Ce3+ doped Ca3(PO4)2 phosphor was investigated upon photo excitation at 240 nm. Antiproliferative activity was evaluated by MTT, BrdU proliferation, ELISA, Methylene blue and caspase-3 assays.
Results
Ca3(PO4)2:Tb3+, Ce3+ phosphor exhibited needle like morphology with length and width ∼100-500 nm and ∼40-50 nm, respectively. It exhibited green emission at 550 nm corresponding to 5D4→7F5 transition with the CIE coordinates (x, y) as (0.284, 0.614). It also showed remarkable concentration dependent cytotoxicity against MCF-7 as well as MDA-MB 231 cells with negligible cytotoxicity compared to MCF-12A, a human epithelial healthy cell line. It reduced the proliferative index of both cell lines in a concentration dependent manner by inhibiting DNA synthesis and Ki67 protein. It also induced distinct apoptotic changes in the morphology of cell and nucleus and also activated the caspase-3 activity in breast cancer cell lines.
Conclusion
The results suggest that Ca3(PO4)2:Tb3+, Ce3+ phosphor may be useful for therapeutic application in clinical settings.
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