ABSTRACT
Objective The purpose of this study is to investigate the apoptosis mechanisms of glioblasto-ma cell line U87 induced by sodium cantharidinate ( SCA) in vitro.Methods Growth inhibition of U87 by 0.625μg/mL,1.25μg/mL,2.5μg/mL,5μg/mL SCA at 24 h,48 h,72 h were analyzed by MTT assay respec-tively.Morphological changes of U 87 nuclear were detected by fluorescence microscope .U87 cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest were detected after SCA treatment for 24 h and 48 h by flow cytometry.The changes of apoptosis-related genes Bcl -2,Bax,Caspase-3 expression were analyzed after 24 h of SCA treatment by RT -PCR as-say.Results MTT assay showed that growth inhibition of U 87 cell induced by SCA was accompanied with the in-creased drug concentration ,Hoechst33258 staining showed the morphology of apoptotic U 87 cells nucleui ,chromo-some condensation ,nuclear condensation ,some nuclear fragmentation and formation of apoptotic bodies .Flow cy-tometry showed that SCA could induce cell cycle arrest at the G 2/M phase,and could induce apoptosis of U87.RT-PCR results showed that after 24 h of SCA treatment caspase -3,bax expression of U87 was significantly higher than the control group(P0.05).Conclusion Our results demonstrate that SCA can inhibit U87 pro-liferation and induce apoptosis of U 87 .