Research on anti-hepatocellular carcinoma activity and mechanism of Polygala fallax Hemsl

Polygala fallax Hemsl. is a kind of traditional medicine of Yao Minority in China. In Chinese medicine practice, Polygala fallax Hemsl. is commonly prescribed to treat all kinds of acute and chronic hepatitis.

The present study aimed at investigating the effects and its possible mechanism of Polygala fallax Hemsl. on the proliferation and apoptosis of HepG2 cells (a kind of human hepatoma cell).

Through a variety of experimental methods, including MTT technique and Hoechst staining to detect apoptosis in Hepatocyte HepG2 cells, flow cytometry to observe the pro-apoptotic and circulatory arrest effects as well as real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR) technique to examine the expression levels of Bcl-2/Bax gene and prote Western blot to examine the expression levels of bcl-2/bax,caspase3,8,9,CyclinA,p21,p27,ERK.Phospho-ERK and AKT, Phospho-AKT in HepG2 cells.

The results showed that compared with the control group, all polarity fractions of P. fallax had inhibitory effects on HepG2 cells, among which the inhibition effect of ethyl acetate fraction in 0.036 ± 0.001 mg/mL of IC₅₀ for 24 h was the most obvious (P < 0.01). And the HepG2 cells induced at the ethyl acetate fraction could up-regulate Bax gene and protein, while down-regulating Bcl-2 gene and protein (P < 0.05) during S phase in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, the ethyl acetate site of Larch can also down regulate the expression of ERK, AKT and activate caspase 3, 8 and 9.

It could be concluded that the ethyl acetate fraction of Polygala fallax Hemsl. can significantly prohibit the proliferation of HepG2 cells. The possible mechanism is to promote the expression of Bax, inhibit the expression of Bcl-2, and down regulate the expression of AKT and ERK.