CRCU

Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2003, Vol. 19 ›› Issue (1): 49-53.

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Ginsenoside Rh2 Showing Ability to Induce Apoptosis in HeLa Cells

FEI Xiao-fang1, Zheng Ke-yan2, WANG Ben-xiang3, TASHIRO Shinichi4, IKEJIMA Takashi5   

  1. 1. College of Life Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130023, P. R. China;
    2. College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130023, P. R. China;
    3. Jilin Institute of Natural Medicine, Changchun, 130021, P. R. China;
    4. Department of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences, Showa College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokyo 194-8543, Japan;
    5. China-Japan Research Institute of Medical and Pharmacentical Sciences, Shenyang Pharmacentical University, Shenyang 110015, P. R. China
  • Received:2001-11-27 Online:2003-01-24 Published:2011-08-06

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Abstract: This paper deals with the inhibitory mechanisms of ginsenoside G-Rh2 on the growth of tumor cells. G-Rh2 significantly inhibited the proliferation of human cervical adenocarcinoma HeLa cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner. G-Rh2 induced apoptotic manifestations in HeLa cells as evidenced by the changes in the cell morphology, the DNA fragmentation and the activation of caspases. Caspase inhibitors, caspase family inhibitor, z-Val-Ala-Asp-fmk(z-VAD-fmk); caspase-1 inhibitor, Ac-Tyr-Val-Ala-Asp-chloromethyl-ketone(Ac-YVAD-cmk); caspase-3 inhibitor, z-Asp-Glu-Val-Asp-fmk(z-DEVE-fmk) and caspase-8 inhibitor, z-Ile-Glu-Asp-fmk(z-IETD-fmk) effectively attenuated G-Rh2-induced cell death. The activities of caspase-1 and caspase-3 were increased in the G-Rh2-induced apoptotic process. However, caspase inhibitors can not inhibit G-Rh2- induced cell death completely. These results suggest that G-Rh2-induced cell death is mediated by the activation of caspase cascade, but there might be some other pathways for induction of this apoptosis.

Key words: Apoptosis, Ginsenoside Rh2(G-Rh2), Human cervical adenocarcinoma cell(HeLa cell), Caspase