Matrine leading Cell Inhibition and Apoptosis in A549 Cells

Under the inspiration of the previous research, in this study, we try to carry out the basic research of matrine for lung cancer cells, and explore the ability of matrine in the growth inhibition and apoptosis reduction on A549. The in vitro activity of matrine was determined using the MTT assay and calculated cell inhibition rates and IC50 by the experimental results. Then, double staining for Annexin V-FITC and propidium iodide (PI) was applied to measure the apoptotic rates. Matrine treatment led to marked increases in the cell inhibition rates. While in the 3-5 mg/ml groups of Matrine, they were all performed a higher inhibition rate than cisplatin group, cell inhibition rates were both higher than cisplatin in 24 h and 48 h. The IC50 of matrine was 1.549 mg/ml in 24 h and 1.465 mg/ml in 48 h. Moreover, a significant increase in apoptosis of A549 was found with matrine treatment. We demonstrated that matrine had a great inhibitory effect of on lung cancer and its mechanism was related to the effect of apoptosis.