ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT Context The rizoma of Sparganium stoloniferum has been used as a traditional Chinese medicinal herb for thousands of years. Sparganium stoloniferum is a stasis-breaking drug to treat a wide range of diseases including cancer,however, its activity of extract on cervical cancer HeLa cells and the mechanisms remains unknown. Objective This study aimed to screen Sparganium stoloniferum extract for its inhibitory effects on cervical cancer HeLa cells. Materials and methods Sparganium stoloniferum was extracted with 95% ethanol under reflux, and the extracts were preliminary separated by silica gel column chromatography. MTT assay and flow cytometry were used to determine the inhibitory effects of three fractions on HeLa cells. In addition, GC-MS was performed to analyze the chemical composition of the active fraction. Results Sample II showed a dose-dependent inhibition of HeLa cell growth, with an inhibition rate of more than 30%, whereas the inhibition rates of Samples I and III were less than 30%. Interestingly, Samples I and III had no effect on apoptosis, in contrast to Sample II, which significantly promoted HeLa cell apoptosis, in a dose-dependent manner. GC-MS was performed to analyze the chemical components of Sample II: steroids were found to be the major components with a relative content of 73.905%, while six known compounds were obtained for the first time. Discussion and conclusion This study provided a novel insight for further research of active fractions of Sparganium stoloniferum, in accordance with the basic principle and theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and will promote the shift of effective substance study, from monomeric chemical compounds to active fractions.
ABSTRACT
In vitro suspension culture procedures for erythroid progenitor cells make it possible for us to obtain large cultures of erythrocyte populations for the investigation of globin gene switching. In this study we aimed to establish optimized culture systems for neonatal and adult erythroblasts and to explore the globin expression patterns in these culture systems. To culture CD34+ cells purified from human umbilical cord blood (CB) and adult bone marrow (BM), we respectively replaced the fetal bovine serum (FBS) with human cord serum and human adult serum. These CD34+ cells were then induced to erythroid differentiation. All the globin mRNA (including alfa-, xi-, vita-, gama-and epsilón-globin), the hemoglobin (Hb)-producing erythroid cells and the cellular distribution of fetal hemoglobin (Hb F) were identified during the culture process. The results showed that the globin expression pattern during erythroid differentiation in our culture systems closely recapitulated neonatal and adult patterns of globin expression in vivo, suggesting that our specially optimized culture systems not only overcame the higher Hb F levels in the BM-derived CD34+ culture in FBS-containing medium but also eliminated the disadvantages of low cell proliferation rate and low globin mRNA levels in serum-free medium.