ABSTRACT
Aim To investigate the effect of sanguina-rine on regulating the pathway of cell apoptosis by in-ducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) in HepG2 cells. Methods MTT method was used to detect the cell viability of HepG2 cell after the treatment of san-guinarine. The changes of ROS were observed by indi-cator DCFH-DA and DHE staining. The apoptosis was detected by Hoechst 33342 and Annexin V/PI stai-ning;Rhodamine 123 staining was used to detect mito-chondrial membrane potential. Western blot was used to detect expressions of key cell-apoptotic protein. Re-sults The cell viability of HepG2 cells showed a de-creasing trend with the increasing concentration of san-guinarine. Sanguinarine could significantly increase cellular ROS,decrease mitochondrial membrane poten-tial in HepG2 cell, and promote apoptosis of HepG2 cells. The expression of Bax, cleaved-caspase-3 and cytoplasmic Cyt-C significantly increased after the treatment of sanguinarine, however, the expression of Bcl-2 was inhibited. Conclusion Sanguinarine could activate mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis mediated by cellular uncontrolled ROS and promote apoptosis of HepG2 cells.