Background: To explore the inhibiting effect and its molecular mechanism of Tanshione on human lung carcinoma cell line.
Methods: Human lung adenocarcinoma cell line (SPC-A-1) was treated IN VITRO with 0.5 mug/mL Tanshinone IIA (Tan IIA) for five days, other equal cells were also treated with all transretinoic acid (RA) and DDP respectively as control. Changes in cell morphology, proliferation dynamics cell cycle distribution and tumor related genes expression were detected, meanwhile the apoptotic cells and apoptosis related genes expression were detected, too.
Results: In Tan IIA group, the cell growth and rate of clone formation of SPC-A-1 cells were markedly inhibited, Flow Cytometry demonstrated that S phase cells decreased and G0/G1 phase cells increased observably, many apoptotic cells were observed by light and electron microscope. Expression of p53, p21, Fas, Bax was up-regulated obviously while the Bcl-2 and CDKN2 was down-regulated markedly.
Conclusions: Tan IIA can inhibit cell growth in SPC-A-1 cell line and its possible molecular mechanism may be inhibiting DNA synthesis by upregulating gene p53, p21 and down-regulating gene CDKN2. On the other hand, inducing cell apoptosis by up-regulating gene p53, Fas, Bax and down-regulating gene Bcl-2 might be the other molecular mechanism in suppressing the growth of SPC-A-1 cells.