NTU Undergraduates' research April 2014 - Biosciences | Page 17

An Investigation into the effects of Crocin on the Proliferation
and Differentiation of a C2C12 mouse myoblast cell line
Owen William Peel

Abstract
In this investigation, both the proliferative and differentiation inducing/inhibiting effects of Crocin, a
constituent of the spice, saffron were investigated on a C2C12 mouse myoblast cell line. This was
done by introducing a low and high dose of crocin, both in combination with insulin and alone. The
treated cells were then left for an incubation period of 24 and 48 hours after which the cells were then
analysed via MTT, a post-MTT protein analysis and a neutral red assay in an attempt to assess
viability. The results obtained from the neutral red analysis method showed a significantly larger
amount of proliferation than the positive control. Although the other results followed similar trends,
the results obtained were not of a significant enough standard, according to Tukey’s method
generating a p value substantially larger than 0.05.
It was therefore concluded that crocin has a proliferative effect upon C2C12 cells and that in this
particular case, it inhibited their differentiation according to the results obtained from the creatine
kinase assay.