Experimental Study of Triptolide Enhances 5-fluorouracil-induced Apoptosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma (SMMC-7721) Cells

Objective To observe the effects of triptolide(TPL) and 5-fluorouracil on hepatocellular carcinoma(SMMC-7721) cells growth and apoptosis.To investigat whether TPL could enhance 5-fluorouracil-induced apoptosis in SMMC-7721 cells.Methods SMMC-7721 cells were cultured in the culture medium with RPMI-1640 and 10% fetal calf serum.Inhibited proliferation effect of 5-fluorouracil and TPL on SMMC-7721 cells were determined by MTT assay.The expression changes of PARP were detected by Western Bloting.The cell apoptosis ratios were analyzed by flow cytometer.Results The proliferation of SMMC-7721 cells could be inhibited by TPL and 5-fluorouracil.Their IC50 on 48 h were 11.14±1.31 ng/mL and 2.34±0.39 μg/mL respectively.TPL combined with 5-fluorouracil were used on SMMC-7721 cells.The expression amount of cleaved PARP and the apoptosis proportion in combined drug group were increased obviously than in each single drug group,and both results have statistically significant differences(P0.01).Conclusion TPL could obviously enhance 5-fluorouracil-induced apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma(SMMC-7721) cells.