Yoon Y, Kim Y O, Lim N Y, Jeon W K, Sung H J
Laboratory of Cancer Research, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Seoul.
Planta Med. 1999 Aug;65(6):532-5. doi: 10.1055/s-1999-14010.
Apoptosis is a new therapeutic target of cancer research. Shikonin isolated from Lithospermum erythrorhizon, a traditional oriental medicinal herb, was observed to induce apoptosis in HL60 human premyelocytic leukemia cell line. Shikonin induced DNA fragmentation into the multiples of 180 bp and increased the percentage of hypodiploid cells in flow cytometry after propidium iodide staining. The increase of apoptotic cells was preceded by the activation of caspase-3, which was reported to play a central role in apoptotic process. The DNA fragmentation induced by shikonin was completely inhibited by the pretreatment of z-VAD-fmk, a specific inhibitor of caspase, clearly showing that the mode of cell death is apoptotic.
细胞凋亡是癌症研究的一个新的治疗靶点。从传统东方草药紫草中分离出的紫草素，被观察到可诱导人早幼粒细胞白血病HL60细胞系发生凋亡。紫草素诱导DNA断裂成180bp的倍数，并在碘化丙啶染色后通过流式细胞术增加亚二倍体细胞的百分比。凋亡细胞的增加之前是caspase-3的激活，据报道caspase-3在凋亡过程中起核心作用。紫草素诱导的DNA断裂被caspase的特异性抑制剂z-VAD-fmk预处理完全抑制，清楚地表明细胞死亡方式是凋亡。
