The Medicinal Plant Garden, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, Hubei 430065, P.R. China.
Department of Clinical Biochemistry, School of Laboratory Medicine, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, Hubei 430065, P.R. China.
Int J Oncol. 2021 Mar;58(3):409-418. doi: 10.3892/ijo.2021.5172. Epub 2021 Jan 15.
Ampelopsis megalophylla has been found to demonstrate anticancer activities in human cancer cells; however, the effect of total flavone extract (TFE), commonly used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, remains unclear. Furthermore, there is limited information on its effects on breast cancer cell lines. The present study aimed to investigate the inhibitory effects of TFE in different human cancer cell lines. In addition, the underlying mechanisms and the signaling pathways involved were also investigated by determining tumor cell morphological changes, and differences in the cell cycle, apoptosis, mitochondrial transmembrane potential, and related protein expression levels in a breast cancer cell line. It was found that TFE inhibited proliferation in seven cancer cell lines (HeLa, A549, MCF‑7, HepG2, A2780, SW620 and MDA‑MB‑231 and demonstrated a strong inhibitory effect on MCF‑7 cell proliferation. Cell morphological changes were also observed and arrested at the G2/M phase following treatment with TFE at different concentrations. In addition, TFE disrupted the mitochondrial membrane potential and upregulated the expression level of apoptotic proteins, including caspase‑3, ‑8 and ‑9, the Bax/Bcl‑2 ratio, and Apaf‑1 in time‑dependent manner. These results indicated that TFE induced apoptosis of the MCF‑7 cells via a mitochondrial‑mediated apoptotic pathway. In conclusion, TFE is potentially effective in treating breast cancer.
绞股蓝已被发现具有抑制人类癌细胞生长的作用；然而，常用作中药的总黄酮提取物（TFE）的效果仍不清楚。此外，关于其对乳腺癌细胞系的影响的信息有限。本研究旨在探讨 TFE 在不同人类癌细胞系中的抑制作用。此外，通过确定肿瘤细胞形态变化以及乳腺癌细胞系中细胞周期、细胞凋亡、线粒体跨膜电位和相关蛋白表达水平的差异，研究了 TFE 作用的潜在机制和涉及的信号通路。结果表明，TFE 抑制了七种癌细胞系（HeLa、A549、MCF-7、HepG2、A2780、SW620 和 MDA-MB-231）的增殖，对 MCF-7 细胞的增殖有很强的抑制作用。细胞形态学变化也观察到，在不同浓度的 TFE 处理后，细胞被阻滞在 G2/M 期。此外，TFE 破坏了线粒体膜电位，并呈时间依赖性地上调了凋亡蛋白的表达水平，包括 caspase-3、-8 和 -9、Bax/Bcl-2 比值和 Apaf-1。这些结果表明，TFE 通过线粒体介导的凋亡途径诱导 MCF-7 细胞凋亡。总之，TFE 可能对治疗乳腺癌有效。
