Pro-apoptotic effect of matrine on A549 cells and its mechanism

AIM: To study the inhibitory effect of matrine on the proliferation of A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells and its mechanism. METHODS: MTT assay,electron microscopy, and cell cycle analysis were used to examine the apoptosis in A549 cells. Expression levels of Bcl-2, Bax and caspase-3 proteins were mea-sured with flow cytometry. RESULTS: Matrine exerted anti-proliferative activity on A549 cells in a dose-and time-dependent manner. Typical apoptotic morphological changes of A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells were observed by electron microscope. Cell cycle analysis indicated that S-phase proportion was increased, as well as S/G2 phase was apparently arrested. Bcl-2 protein expression was dramatically decreased (P0.01) whereas the expression of Bax and caspase-3 was increased in A549 cells after treated by matrine. CONCLUSION: Matrine can exert the significant growth-inhibitory effect on A549 cells and induce the cell apoptosis, which is probably related with the downregulation of Bcl-2 expression via changing the permeability of mitochondrial membrane.