[Ginsenoside Rh₂ induces apoptosis and autophagy of K562 cells by activating p38]

Abstract

To study the effect of ginseng saponin Rh₂ in inducing apoptosis of human leukemia K562 cells, and explore its mechanism from the aspect of autophagy pathway. CCK-8 assay was used to examine the growth inhibition of human leukemia cell lines K562 treated with ginsenoside Rh₂; flow cytometry (FCM) was used to detect cell apoptosis; Hoechst staining was used to observe the changes of cell morphological apoptosis; Acridine and MDC staining were used to detect the effects of the Rh₂ on autophagy; Western blot and RT-PCR were used to detect the expression levels of the proteins closely associated with autophagy and apoptosis. In order to study the effect of autophagy in proliferation and apoptosis, we used the autophagy inhibitor (3-MA).CCK-8 indicated that Rh₂ at low concentration could effectively inhibit the proliferation of leukemia cellsin dose- and time-dependent manners in K562 cells; FCM indicated that Rh₂ induced apoptosis; Hoechest staining showed that K562 cells had typical apoptotic morphological changes by treated Rh₂; Acridine and MDC staining showed that Rh₂ enhanced the green fluorescence and a large number of acidic autophagy vesicles were present; Western blot and RT-PCR results showed that Rh₂ increased the expression levels of Beclin-1, LC3A, LC3B, activated Caspase-3 and p-p38 in K562 cells; application of autophagy inhibitors(3-MA) could weaken the inhibition effect of Rh₂ on proliferation and induction effect on apoptosis in K562 cells. Ginsenoside Rh₂ inhibited the proliferation and induced apoptosis probably through activating p-p38, and inducing cell autophagy signaling pathway in K562 cells.

Keywords: apoptosis; autophagy; ginsenoside Rh₂; leukemia.