Abstract

δ-Aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is a compound which is widely present in the biosphere and playsan important role in the living body as an intermediate of the tetrapyrrole compound biosynthesis pathwaythat leads to heme in mammals and chlorophyll in plants. ALA is of interest as a biodegradable mediator,a growth regulator, a precursor of heme proteins, and an effective agent used in therapy of cancer. It has beenrecently reported that ALA is commonly used in dermatology, due to good effects of skin therapy. Althoughfor the last few decades a substantial amount of research has been focused on the elucidation of the mechanismof ALA and the improvement of its therapeutic activity, it’s effect on the cell functions and growth was notcleared. Here, we identified that ALA treatment could attenuate cell proliferation of HEK293T and HaCaTcells. In addition, ALA treatement could induce apoptosis of HeLa cells. These results suggest that apoptosisinduced by ALA treatment might be responsible for inhibition of cell proliferation. These results propose thepossibility of the improved therapeutic strategy making ALA one of the effective drugs used in human cancers.