Data from: Screening of cytotoxic or cytostatic flavonoids with quantitative FUCCI-based cell cycle assay

The Fluorescence-Ubiquitin Cell Cycle Indicator (FUCCI) system can be used
not only to study gene expression at a specific cell cycle stage, but also
to monitor cell cycle transitions in real time. In this study, we used a
single clone of FUCCI-expressing HeLa cells (FUCCI-HeLa cells) and
monitored the cell cycle in individual live cells over time by determining
the ratios between red fluorescence (RF) of RFP-Cdt1 and green
fluorescence (GF) of GFP-Geminin. Cytotoxic and cytostatic compounds, the
latter of which induced G2 or mitotic arrest, were identified based on
periodic cycling of the RF/GF and GF/RF ratios in FUCCI-HeLa cells treated
with anticancer drugs. With this cell cycle monitoring system, ten
flavonoids were screened. Of these, apigenin and luteolin, which have a
flavone backbone, were cytotoxic, whereas kaempferol, which has a flavonol
backbone, was cytostatic and induced G2 arrest. In summary, we developed a
system to quantitatively monitor the cell cycle in real time. This system
can be used to identify novel compounds that modulate the cell cycle and
to investigate structure–activity relationships.