RESUMEN
Aim To investigate the effect of Ginsen-oside Rh2 on apoptosis in human colorectal cancer cell SW480,and to explore the possible mechanism of it. Methods The proliferation activity of SW480 treated with Ginsenoside Rh2 was measured CCK-8 assay.Ap-optosis rates were evaluated by FCM.Hoechst 33258 staining was used to observe cell nucleus morphologi-cal;change SW480 cells were treated with Ginsenoside Rh2,and the protein expressions of Bcl-2,Bax,p53, cleaved caspase-3 ,PI3 K,AKT,P-AKT,GSK-3β,P-GSK-3βwere detected by Western blot;SW480 cells were treated with LY294002,Rh2,LY294002+Rh2, the expressions of PI3 K,AKT,P-AKT,GSK-3β,P-GSK-3βwere detected by Western blot.Results The proliferation of SW480 cells was significantly inhibited by Ginsenoside Rh2 in dose-dependent and time-de-pendent manner.FCM showed the inducing apoptosis effect of Ginsenoside Rh2 was significantly different from that of control group.Hoechst 33258 staining in-dicated clearly cell apoptosis in Ginsenoside Rh2 treat-ment groups.Western blot showed Ginsenoside Rh2 decreased expression of Bcl-2,increased expression of Bax,p53 and cleaved caspase-3,PI3K/AKT/GSK-3βpathway proteins PI3 K,P-AKT,P-GSK-3βdecreased obviously,AKT and GSK-3βwere not changed signifi-cantly in SW480.SW480 cells were separately treated with LY294002,Rh2,LY294002 +Rh2,there were no significant difference in AKT and GSK-3βprotein a-mong all groups,and the expression of PI3 K,P-AKT, P-GSK-3βdecreased more obviously in LY294002 +Rh2 group compared with LY294002 and Rh2 alone. Conclusion Rh2 induces colorectal cancer cell apop-tosis through PI3 K/AKT/GSK-3βpathway,which ac-tivates p53 and cleaved caspase-3,and destroys the balance of Bcl-2/Bax.