Julibroside J₈-induced HeLa cell apoptosis through caspase pathway

Abstract

The julibroside J ₈ was isolated from the Albizia julibrissin and evaluated for antiproliferatived on six cancer cell lines (BGC-823, Bel-7402, HeLa, PC-3MIE8, MDA-MB-435 and LH-60) in vitro. Julibroside J ₈ at 100 μg mL^− 1 (46.08 μmol·L^− 1) significantly inhibited growth in the first three cell lines. In addition, in HeLa cells typical apoptotic changes in morphology were observed, and further, nuclear damage was observed by Giemsa staining and DNA fragmentation was exhibited. Effects of julibroside J ₈ on induction of DNA fragmentation, caspase-3 activation and downregulation of ICAD expression were effectively inhibited by a caspase-3 inhibitor, z-DEVD-fmk. In addition, apoptosis induced with julibroside J₈ was associated with an increase in expression of the apoptosis inducer Bax, and a significant reduction in expression of the apoptosis suppressor Bcl-2 in mitochondria. These results suggest that julibroside J₈ induces HeLa death through caspase pathway.

Keywords:

• Julibroside J ₈
• HeLa cell
• Apoptosis
• Caspase
• Bax

Acknowledgements

This project was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 20432030).