Table 2.

In vitro anti-cancer effects of diosgenin.

Cancer model	Cell Lines	Diosgenin Dose	Molecular Target	References
Breast carcinoma	Estrogen receptor positive and estrogen receptor negative human breast cancer MCF-7 and MDA 231 cells	20 μM and 30 μM	Inhibition of cell proliferation Induces apoptosis	[72]
	MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells	20 μM, 40 μM, and 60 μM	Downregulation of Bcl2	[57]
	Her2 over-expressing breast cancer cells	5–20 μM	Modulation of Akt, mTOR, and JNK phosphorylation	[53]
	MCF-7 breast cancer cells	20 μM and 40 μM	Upregulation of p53 tumor suppressor gene	[73]
Hepatocellular carcinoma	C3A, HUH-7, and HepG2 cells	50 μM and 100 μM	Downregulation of STAT3 signaling pathway Upregulates SH-PTP2 expression Induces apoptosis Potentiates the apoptotic effects of doxorubicin and paclitaxel	[54]
Prostate carcinoma	PC3 cells	5 μM, 10 μM, and 20 μM	Downregulates NF-κB signaling pathway Inhibits matrix metalloproteinases Inhibits invasion and migration of cells	[56]
Osteosarcoma	1547 cells	40 μM, 80 μM, and 100 μM	Inhibits cell proliferation Induces apoptosis	[55]
	1547 cells	40 μM	Inhibits cell proliferation Induces apoptosis Upregulation of p53 tumor suppressor gene	[74]
Human erythroleukemia	HEL cells, K562 cells	40 μM	Inhibits NF-κB signaling pathway	[75]
	HEL cells	40 μM	Inhibits proliferation Induces apoptosis Upregulation of p21	[76]
Human Laryngocarcinoma Human Melanoma	HEp-2 cells M4Beu cells	40 μM	Inhibits cell proliferation Induces caspase-3 dependent apoptosis Upregulates p53 tumor suppressor gene	[77]
Human cancer cells	Human epithelial carcinoma cell line (A431), human NSCLC cell line (A549), human ovarian cancer cell line (A2780), Human erythroleukemia (K562) and Dukes’ type C, colorectal adenocarcinoma (HCT-15)	10 mmol/L	Induces apoptosis via mitochondrial dependent pathway	[78]
	Multiple myeloma (U266), leukemia (U937), and breast cancer (MCF-7)	50 μM and 100 μM	Inhibits NF-κB signaling pathway	[58]