Juglone induces apoptosis of human gastric cancer SGC-7901 cells through reactive oxygen species mediated JNK and p38 pathway / 中国药学杂志

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect and mechanism of juglone on the apoptosis of human gastric cancer SGC-7901 cells. METHODS: The antiproliferative effect of juglone on SGC-7901 cells was tested by the MTT assay. The apoptosis rate and in-tracellular reactive oxygen species(ROS) level were detected by flow cytometry (FCM). The expression of JNK, p-JNK, p38, and p-p38 proteins were examined by Western blot. In order to clarify the role of ROS in the apoptosis induced by juglone on SGC-7901 cells, the combination of the juglone and ROS inhibitor NAC groups were set up in each experiment above. RESULTS Juglone could effectively inhibit the proliferation of SGC-7901 cells (IC50 for 72 h was 24.16 μmol·L-1). When combination juglone with NAC, the IC50 raised to 36.91 μmol·L-1. After 72 h of exposure to 5-20 μmol·L-1 of juglone, the cell apoptosis rate increased gradually with the increase of juglone concentration. After adding NAC, the apoptosis rates declined and the apoptosis rate of 20 μmol·L-1 group decreased from 32.06% to 11.56%. After SGC-7901 cells were treated with juglone for 24 h, the ROS level increased and mitochondrial transmembrane potential decreased which were inhibited by the pretreatment of NAC. After 48 h of exposure to different con-centration of juglone, the expressions of p-p38 and p-JNK proteins were up-regulated which could also be inhibited by the adding of NAC. Meanwhile, there were no significant changes in p38 and JNK protein expression in all groups. CONCLUSION: Juglone can induce apoptosis of human gastric cancer SGC-7901 cells by JNK and P38 pathway mediated by reactive oxygen species.