ArticleBMC veterinary research2021
High cytotoxicity of betulin towards fish and murine fibroblasts: Is betulin safe for nonneoplastic cells?
Article in BMC veterinary research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Synthetic Linear Lipopeptides and Lipopeptoids Induce Apoptosis and Oxidative Stress: In Vitro Cytotoxicity and SAR Evaluation Against Cancer Cell Lines.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Supramolecular Architectures Based on the Self-Assembly of Suberin Hydrolysate, Betulin, and Their Hybrids.Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids · 2025Article
- Betulinic acid and obesity-related disorders.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Review
- β-sitosterol isolated from the leaves ofPeerJ · 2024Article
- Article
- The Influence of Betulin Derivatives EB5 and ECH147 on the Expression of Selected TGFβ Superfamily Genes,Current issues in molecular biology · 2023Article
- Effect of Betulin Colloidal Particles on Proliferation and Cytokine Secretion of Human Skin Fibroblasts.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Pentacyclic Triterpenoid Phytochemicals with Anticancer Activity: Updated Studies on Mechanisms and Targeted Delivery.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Effects ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Secondary Metabolites with Biomedical Applications from Plants of the Sarraceniaceae Family.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- The Influence of Betulin and Its Derivatives EB5 and ECH147 on the Antioxidant Status of Human Renal Proximal Tubule Epithelial Cells.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Anti-Inflammatory and Anticancer Properties of Birch Bark-Derived Betulin: Recent Developments.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- The MTT Assay: Utility, Limitations, Pitfalls, and Interpretation in Bulk and Single-Cell Analysis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBetulin, a natural pentacyclic triterpene with the lupane structure that is present in significant amounts in the outer bark of birch, is known for its broad array of biological and pharmacological properties. Betulin has attracted attention as a potential, natural-origin antimicrobial substance. The literature describes it as selectively toxic to neoplastic cells but safe for normal cells. The research aim was to evaluate the basal cytotoxicity of betulin towards fish (BF-2) and murine (NIH/3T3) fibroblasts. We used four colorimetric tests that provide a preliminary evaluation of possible mechanisms of the cytotoxicity of a compound to assess the degree of the toxicity of betulin after 24, 48 and 72 h of incubation with cells: the MTT assay (mitochondrial activity assessment), the NRU assay (lysosomal membrane integrity assessment), the LDH assay (cellular membrane integrity assessment) and the SRB assay (total cellular protein content determination).
resultsThe results revealed an exceptionally high sensitivity of mitochondria to the effect of betulin, with the other endpoints being less sensitive. Although murine fibroblasts were more vulnerable to the toxic effect of betulin than fish fibroblasts, the betulin CC
conclusionsThe results indicate the need to verify the claim about the selective toxicity of betulin towards malignant cells and to conduct safety/toxicity tests before any potential therapeutic use of betulin in veterinary medicine.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.