ABSTRACT
The study was aimed to investigate the mechanism of cytotoxic effect of trichosanthin (TCS) on leukemia or lymphoma cell lines. Trypan blue exclusion was used to measure the effect of TCS on cell growth and flow cytometry was used to detect the effects of TCS on cell apoptosis and cell cycle. The results indicated that the TCS could inhibit proliferation of various leukemia/lymphoma cell lines at 12.5 microg/ml concentration, but the effect of TCS on T-lymphocyte and macrophage cell lines showed inducing cell apoptosis and the effect of TCS on B lymphocyte cell line showed inhibiting cell growth. Detection of the cell cycle revealed that TCS could arrest B lymphocytes at S phase, but not had this effect on T lymphocytes at the same condition. It is concluded that TCS can kill leukemia/lymphoma cells through different mechanisms such as inducing cell apoptosis or arresting cell cycle according to cell types.