Lignans from Affect In Vivo Cell Behavior by Disturbing the Tubulin Cytoskeleton in Zebrafish Embryos.

By using a zebrafish embryo model to guide the chromatographic fractionation of antimitotic secondary metabolites, seven podophyllotoxin-type lignans were isolated from a hydroalcoholic extract obtained from the steam bark of . The compounds were identified as podophyllotoxin (), β-peltatin-A-methylether (), 5'-desmethoxy-β-peltatin-A-methylether (), desmethoxy-yatein (), desoxypodophyllotoxin (), burseranin (), and acetyl podophyllotoxin (). The biological effects on mitosis, cell migration, and microtubule cytoskeleton remodeling of lignans ⁻ were further evaluated in zebrafish embryos by whole-mount immunolocalization of the mitotic marker phospho-histone H3 and by a tubulin antibody.

Cytotoxic podophyllotoxin type-lignans from the steam bark of Bursera fagaroides var. fagaroides.

The hydroalcoholic extract of the steam bark of B. fagaroides var. fagaroides displayed potent cytotoxic activity against four cancer cell lines, namely KB (ED50 = 9.