ABSTRACT
Object To find out which of the 27 ginsenosides isolated from Panax ginseng C A Mey that may inhibit the proliferation of human osteosarcoma cell line U 2OS Methods Effects of each individual ginsenoside on the proliferation of U 2OS cell were studied by determining the viability of cancer cells during culture with or without the presence of the test compound DNA assay was determined by flow cytometry Results Ginsonosides Ro, Rh 1, Rh 2, F 1 and L 8 at concentrations of 5 ?mol/L could obviously suppress the proliferation of U 2OS cells while ginsenosides Rg 1, F 3, Rf, PPT and PT significantly inhibited the cancer cells Flow cytometry revealed that ginsenosides Ro, Rg 1, Rf, F 1, Rh 2 ,PPT and PT induced cell cycle arrest at G 0/G 1 phase with obvious decrease of cell count at S and G 2+M phase Moreover, ginsenosides Rf 1, Rg 1, F 1 and PPT induced significantly high rates of cell death as compared with the control Conclusion These data suggested that ginsenosides inhibited U 2OS proliferation via cell cycle arrest or induction of cell death