ABSTRACT
Aim To investigate the antitumor effects of cimigenol ( KY17 ) , a novel cycloartane triterpenoid from Cimicifuga , in human colon cancer cells (HCT116).Methods MTT assay was used to deter-mine the effect of KY17 on the proliferation of mouse embryonic fibroblasts ( MEF) and human colon cancer HCT116 cell line.Flow cytometry was employed to de-tect the effect of KY17 on HCT116 cell cycle.Fluores-cence microscopy and flow cytometry were used to ana-lyze the apoptosis .Western blot was used to detect the expression of apoptotic protein (PARP).q-PCR ana-lyzed the expression of miRNA-34a.Results The IC50 of KY17 in MEF and HCT116 cells was 27.28 μmol· L-1 and 9.31μmol· L-1 , respectively.KY17 induced HCT116 cell cycle arrest in G2/M phase and the apoptotic protein PARP cleavage . In addition, KY17 up-regulated the expression of p 53 protein and miRNA-34a.Conclusions KY17 inhibits the prolifera-tion and the cell cycle is arrested in G 2/M, inducing the apoptosis of HCT116 cells. The mechanism is probably related to miRNA-34a up-regulation and p53 activation .