Study on the effects of tanshinone derivates on growth inhibition and apoptosis induction in human erythroleukemia cell line K562

Aim To investigate the effects of tanshinone derivates on growth inhibition and apoptosis induction in human erythroleukemia cell line K562.Methods MTT assay was used to measure the inhibition effect on the proliferation of K562 cells cultured with tanshinone 1,tanshinone 2 and tanshinone B at different concentrations.The effect of test compounds on cell cycle in K562 was detected by PI staining.The apoptosis induction effect was measured by Annexin V/PI double staining.Results Tanshinone 1 and tanshinone B could inhibit the proliferation of K562 cells,the 50% inhibiting concentrations of them were 5.22 and 15.11 μmol·L-1 respectively,during the dose of 2.5～10 μmol·L-1 and 10～40 μmol·L-1,the proportion of G0/G1 phase cells increased,and the percentage of the cells in early phase of apoptosis raised as the concentration of drugs increased;the inhibition rate of K562 cells treated with 100 μmol·L-1 tanshinone 2 was just 27.8%,tanshinone 2 could not induce apoptosis in K562 cells,but could increase the number of cells in the G0/G1 phase.Conclusions Tanshinone 1 and tanshinone B could inhibit the proliferation of K562 cells,arrest them in the G0/G1 phase,and induce apoptosis.Tanshinone 2 had no obvious toxic and apoptosis induction effect on K562 cells,but it could arrest them in the G0/G1 phase.