The apoptosis of HepG2 cells induced by plum extract and its mechanism

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of plum extract on the proliferation and apoptosis of HepG2 cells and its mechanism. The proliferation of HepG2 cells was examined by Alamar Blue assay. The apoptosis of HepG2 cells was determined by inverted fluorescence microscope, Hoechst 33258 and flow cytometry analysis.Western blot analysis was used to detect the expression of the apoptosis-related factors in HepG2 cells.Results indicated that the cell proliferation was inhibited by plum extract in a dose dependent manner and morphologic alterations of cells were observed after treated with plum extract for 48h.The results of flow cytometry analysis showed that the apoptotic ratio of HepG2 cells treated with plum extract was significantly increased compared with control.Plum extract down-regulated the expression of Survivin, Bcl-2 and up-regulated the p53, Bax, Bid, Caspase- 9 and Caspase- 3 in HepG2 cells. Besides, the Caspase- 3 activity were also increased in treated group. It provided evidence that plum extract induced the apoptosis of HepG2 through endogenous apoptosis signaling pathway.