Anti-cancer Activity

The potential ability of the recombinant l-asparaginase II as an anti-leukemic agent was determined by testing it against three leukemic cell lines. MOLT 3, Jurkat E6.1, K-562 was purchased from NCCS, Pune. The cells were sustained in RPMI 1640 medium with 5% fetal bovine serum. The viability of the cells were checked using trypan blue and 1 × 10⁴ cells of each cell line were separately seeded in a 96 well plate. The recombinant l-asparaginase II and commercial l-asparaginase were treated in concentrations from 5 to 100 µg on all cell lines and incubated for 18 h. MTT (mg/ml) was added in all the wells and incubated for 4 h. The plates were briefly centrifuged at 2000 rpm for 10 min and the plates were rapidly inverted to remove the medium. DMSO (150 µl) was added and incubated at room temperature for 20 min. The readings were measured at 570 nm and the cell viability was calculated [18].