ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the effects of ursolic acid and rhynchophylline in Uncariae Ramulus Cum Uncis on human hepatoma HepG2 cells; To discuss its antihepatoma mechanism. Methods Culture the human hepatoma HepG2 cells with 50, 25, 12.5, 6.25 μmol/L ursolic acid, rhynchophylline for 24, 48, 72 hours respectively. 1%DMSO was set as negative control group. CCK-8 based cytotoxicity assay was used to detect the growth of HepG2. Acridine orange fluorescent staining was used to observe human hepatoma HepG2 cells cultured with 50 μmol/L ursolic acid, rhynchophylline and 1%DMSO for 48 hours were observed. Results Ursolic acid significantly acted as a disincentive to the growth of HepG2 cells, which was in positive correlation with time and concentration. Inhibited effect by rhynchophylline on HepG2 cell proliferation was weaker than ursolic acid. Pathological observation showed that most of the cells in rhynchophylline group showed cell shrinkage, dense pulp coating and nuclear staining edge set, and most of the cells in the ursolic acid group showed apoptosis late changes, such as nuclear cleavage and apoptotic bodies. Conclusion Ursolic acid and rhynchophyllinein Uncariae Ramulus Cum Uncis can inhibit the proliferation of HepG2 cells and can induce apoptosis.