Inhibitory effect of silymarin on human osteosarcoma Saos-2 cells and its mechanism / 中国药理学通报

ABSTRACT

Aim To study the effect of silymarin on proliferation and apoptosis of human osteosarcoma saos-2 cells and to explore its possible mechanisms .Meth-ods Control group and different concentration groups of silymarin were set , and Saos-2 cells were treated with silymarin .Celluar morphologic changes were ob-served by inverted phase contrast microscope .Prolifer-ation of cells was tested CCK-8 assay .Apoptosis rate of cells was analyzed by flow cytometry . ERK1/2、p-ERK1/2 and cleaved caspase-3 protein expression were measured by Western blot .Results Silymarin inhibi-ted the proliferation of Saos-2 cells in a time-dependent and concentration-dependent manner . Silymarin in-duced the apoptosis of Saos-2 cells in a concentration-dependent manner . Silymarin decreased p-ERK1/2 protein expression and increased cleaved caspase-3 protein expression in a concentration-dependent man-ner, while ERK1/2 protein expression had no obvious change.Conculsions Silymarin can inhibit the prolif-eration of human osteosarcoma saos-2 cells and induce apoptosis of them , and the mechanism may be related to inhibition of ERK signaling pathway and upregulated caspase-3 protein expression .