Effect of Ursolic Acid on Inhibiting Growth and Apoptosis in Human Hepatoma SMMC-7721

Objective: To discuss the inhibition mechanism of ursolic acid on inhibiting the growth of human carcinoma cell SMMC-7721.Method: Human hepatocellular carcinoma cell SMMC-7721 were co-cultured with different doses of ursolic acid for 24 h and 72 h,respectively.The absorbance value was evaluated by neutral red staining method,evaluation of ursolic acid on the proliferation of hepatoma cells;and the apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry.Result: Different concentrations of ursolic acid on the proliferation of SMMC-7721 cells showed obvious inhibition effect(P 0.05 or P 0.01) with a time and dose dependent manner.The half inhibitory concentration(IC 50) of ursolic acid on SMMC-7721 cell strain was 12.59 mg·L-1and 8.32 mg·L-1,respectively.The result indicated that the apoptosis rate was up to 14.07%,ursolic acid arrested SMMC-7721 the cell strain to S by flow cytometry with a dose-dependent manner.Conclusion: Ursolic acid on the proliferation of SMMC-7721 hepatoma cell line has the obvious inhibitory action,antitumor mechanism may be related to induction of cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in S phase.