Effect of Oxymatrine on Cell Proliferation and Apoptosis of Human Cervical Cancer Cell Line SiHa

Objective To evaluate the proliferative effect and induction of apoptosis by oxymatrine in human cervical cancer cell line SiHa in vitro.Methods SiHa were cultured in vitro.The experimental groups were treated with oxymatrine,the others were in the control groups.Proliferation rates and 1C50 values were assessed by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium(MTT).Inverted phase contrast microscope was used to observed the morphological alterations of SiHa human cervical cancer cells at five concentrations of oxymatrine at 48 h.The morphological changes accompanying cell apoptosis were observed using an inverted microscope after Hoechst 33258 staining.In addition.expression changes of apoptosis- related proteins involved in the P53,Bax and Bcl-2 were determined by western blotting.Results The results determined by MTT assay showed that the viability of human cervical cancer SiHa cells with oxymatrine was markedly attenuated in a concentration and time dependent manner(P 0.05).The IC50 values were calculated as(1 028.41 ± 3.57) μg/ml,(701.72 ± 6.01) μg/ml and(406.88 ±2.15) μg/ml at 24 h,48 h and 72 h.The morphological alterations of SiHa human cervical cancer cells changed significantly with the increase of the concentration of oxymatrine at 48,h.Also the oxymatrine- treated SiHa human cervical cancer cells displayed typical apoptosis morphological changes by the Hoechst 33258 staining at 48 h.Compared with the control groups,the experimental groups resulted in remarkable increase of both P53 and Bax(P 0.05),but significantly decrease of Bcl-2(P 0.05) in Western blot.Conclusion These results demonstrate that oxymatrine exerts antitumor effects on SiHa cells through its anti-proliferative role,and suggest the mechanism for the effect may be related to its induction of apoptosis effects.