The aim of this study was to investigate the cytotoxic effect and its mechanism on Radix Aconiti(RA) extract in lung cancer cell lines. RA extract treatment decreased the cell viability in a dose-dependent fashions in lung cancer cells including A549, H460, H23 and H157 cells. Many investigators reported that A549 and H460 cells expressed wild-type p53, but H23 and H157 cells preserved mutated p53. After treatment with RA extract in A549 and H460 cells, we measured the expression of p53 protein levels using Western blot. analysis. In both cells treated with RA extracts, p53 protein expressions were increased in a dose-dependent manner. In our experiments, RA extracts also have cytotoxic effects in H23 and H157, which have mutated p53. Treatment with RA extract decreased bcl-2 protein expressions in both cells. These results suggest that RA extracts have cytotoxic effects via p53 expression increase and bcl-2 inhibitable pathways in A549, H460 cells and H23, H157 cells, respectively.

Many naturally occurring plant extracts are studied for their beneficial effects for health and particularly on cancer. Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, occurs in both normal and pathological conditions, including cancer Dysregulation of apoptosis allows transformed cells to continually and uninhibitedly enter the cell cycle, thus perpetuating the sequence of mutation, genomic instability and, finally, oncogenesis. To investigate the apoptosis-inducing effect of the extract of Fructus Trichosanthis (EFT) on leukemic HL-60 cells and its mechanism, HL-60 cells in vitro in culture medium were given different doses of the extract. The inhibitory rate of cells were measured by microculture tetrazolium assay, cell apoptotic rate was detected by flow cytometry, morphology of cell apoptosis was observed by DAPI fluorescence staining, and the activations of caspases and PARP were detected using Western blotting analysis. The extract could activate the caspase-3 and caspase-8, induce PARP cleavage, inhibit growth of HL-60 cells, and cause apoptosis significantly The suppression was in dose-dependent manner. Marked morphological changes of cell apoptosis including condensation of chromatin and nuclear fragmentation were observed clearly by DAPI fluorescence staining especially. These results will provide strong laboratory evidence of EFT for clinical treatment of acute leukemia.