Experimental study of matrine on induction of tumor cells apoptosis in vitro

Objective To investigate the effect of matrine on induction of tumor cells apoptosis and its molecular mechanisms.Methods A21-2 and MG63 cells were treated with matrine at different concentration:0.2 mg/ml,0.4 mg/ml,0.6 mg/ml.Using light microscope to observe the change of morphology;flow cytometry(FMC) method was used to detect the apoptosis cycles of cells and expression of Caspase-3 protein.Results After matrine treatment,inverted microscope observation showed that the growth of cells was inhibited significantly.Flow cytometry method showed that there was a sub-G_0/G_1 apoptosis peak in the graph of drug-treated groups after 72h.Compared with control group,the apoptosis rate increased in observation group(P 0.01),and the more the concentration was,the higher the apoptosis rate was(P 0.01).FCM analysis showed Caspase-3 increased in observation group than control group(P 0.01),and alone with the increase of the concentration,the expression of Caspase-3 increased(P 0.05).Conclusion Matrine can inhibit proliferation of A21-2 and MG63cells.Its molecular mechanism might be related to modulating the expression of Caspase-3 protein.