Alizarin, an Agonist of AHR Receptor, Enhances CYP1A1 Enzyme Activity and Induces Transcriptional Changes in Hepatoma Cells.

The phytopigment alizarin was previously characterized as an anti-tumor drug owing to its antioxidant or antigenotoxic activities. However, the safety of alizarin is currently still under dispute. In this study, we explored the activity of alizarin in the AHR-CYP1A1 pathway and analyzed the transcriptional changes affected by alizarin using human hepatoma cell line HepG2-based assays.