• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.640-646
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• 2005

This study was performed for the investigation of anticancer effects of Siegesbeckia glabrescens(SG) on HepG2 cells, a human hepatoma cell line. In the previous study, we examined the involvement of nitric oxide (NO) on anti-proliferative and apoptotic efficacy of SG in vascular smooth muscle cells. The possible mechanism of the apoptotic effects of SG was investigated in HepG2 cells. SG showed potent cytotoxic activity in HepG2 but not chang cells, liver normal cells. SG treatment caused morphological change such as cell shrinkage, nuclei condensation and cell blebbing in HepG2 cells. SG also increased the nitrite production of HepG2 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, L-NNA treatment inhibited the anti-proliferative effect of SG. From RT-PCR, SG decreased Bcl-2 but no affected on Bax. Western blot for procaspase-3 and COX-2 showed that degradation of procaspase-3 protein level or inhibition of COX-2 protein expression by SG treatment. In addition, the apoptotic effect of SG was also demonstrated by DNA laddering. In conclusion, SG-induced HepG2 cells death can occur via apoptosis which was dose-dependent, and associated with apoptosis-related Bcl-2/Bax gene expressions, COX-2 inhibition, caspase-3 activation and NO pathway. These results suggest that SG is potentially useful as a chemotherapeutic/chemopreventive agent in hepatocellular carcinoma.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.169-176
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• 1999

The purposes of this study were to set up the method of the natural killer(NK) cell activity assay using the flow cytometer and to examine the characteristics and distribution of the NK cell during rat hepatocarcinogenesis. Forty five male 6 week-old specific pathogen free(SPF) Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups. Group I was the non-treated control and given normal diet and water. Group II was treated with diethylnitrosamine(DEN, 200mg/kg, i.p.) and partial hepatectomy. Group III was treated with DEN, partial hepatectomy and 0.05% phenobarbital sodium in water from 3 to 16 weeks. All animals were examined the morphology of the large granular lymphocyte(LGL), the LGL percent of the total lymphocytes and the LGL conjugation rate with YAC-1 cell in peripheral blood, spleen and liver. Moreover, activity of the LGL isolated from peripheral blood lymphocytes was determined using the flow cytometer. As results, LGL were observed in the peripheral blood, spleen and liver. LGL were observed the relatively faintly staining basophilic cytoplasm with granules, and eccentric, often kidney-shaped nuclei in Giemsa stain. Its size was $11{\sim}13{\mu}m$. LGL percentage of the isolated lymphocytes in peripheral blood, spleen and liver were 1.8~2.3%, 1.3~1.4% and 0.87~0.99%, respectively. LGL conjugation rate with YAC-1 cell was shown to be peripheral blood(9.3~10.3 %) > spleen(7.7~8.7%) > liver(5.6~7.0%). The activity of the LGL isolated from peripheral blood lymphocytes in Group I, II and III was 33.7%, 30.5% and 35.4%, respectively. However, all values were not significantly between groups.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.70-73
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• 2006

Alpha-fetoprotein(AFP) is a plasma protein produced in the fetal liver, yolk sac and gastrointestinal tract. The plasma level of AFP decreases markedly 1 year after birth. The AFP level is usually increased in hepatocellular carcinoma and yolk sac tumor but is rare in a primary lung cancer. We report a case of primary adenocarcinoma of lung producing high levels of AFP.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.1381-1386
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• 2007

To elucidate the changes in physiological activities of Scutellariae baicalensis by heating, composition analysis with HPLC and evaluation of physiological activities of extracts were conducted. HPLC analysis of CW(water extract at room temperature) and CHW(heat treated CW) indicated that two distinctive peaks in the HPLC chromatogram were disappeared after boiling and additional peak was newly observed. This observation suggested that certain chemical changed in the extract occurred by heat treatment. In the estimation of physiological activities, CW showed higher ACE inhibiting activity than CHW. In the case of cytotoxic activity against cancer cells, CW exhibited higher activity than CHW against CCL-185. On the other hand, CHW showed higher activity than CW against HeLa, SNU-601 and HepG2. In addition, CHW showed the inhibitory effect on melanogenesis (80% inhibition) while CW did not show any activity.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.519-526
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• 2012

Recently, herbal flavonoids have been implicated for anti-cancer therapy. Flavonoids as a commonly known for their anti-oxidant activity, are contained in the herbal medicine as well as root of plants, vegetables, fruits, grains, tea, and wine. Kaempferol, a component of Polygonati rhizoma, a member of the herbal flavonoids, has been studied for anti-hypercholesterol, anti-hypertension and anti-diabetes. It is also known to be effective in anti-cancer therapy for breast, prostate and other type of cancers. However, the anti-cancer therapeutic mechanisms are pooly understood. Here, we investigated the molecular mechanism underlying kaempferol-induced anti-cancer effects using the human liver cancer cell lines, Hep3B, HepG2, and Sk-Hep-1, and human Chang liver cell as a control. As shown by the FACS analysis, measurement of caspase activity, DAPI and trypan blue staining, and DNA fragmentation assay, kaempferol induced apoptosis in the liver cancer cells with the greater potential in Hep3B cells than other liver cancer cells. In addition, we performed microarray analysis to profile the genome-wide mRNA expression regulated by kaempferol. Many of the apoptosis-related genes were significantly induced in kaempferol-treated Hep3B cells, in particular, the genes associated with MAPK cascade. Additionally, kaempferol induced the mRNA expression of genes involved in MKK7-JNK cascade, MKK3-p38 cascade, and caspase signaling pathway, which are all known to trigger apoptosis. Overall, our data suggest that kaempferol has anti-liver cancer effects by inducing apoptosis through the MKK7-JNK cascade, MKK3-p38 cascade, and caspase signaling pathways.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.1437-1449
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• 2007

In this study, the effect of extract of Corydalis yanhusuo (ECT) used in Oriental medicine therapy was investigated on the cell growth and apoptosis of HepG2 human hepatoma cells. It was found that ECT could inhibit the cell growth effectively in a dose-dependent manner, which was associated with morphological change and apoptotic cell death such as formation of apoptotic bodies, DNA fragmentation and increased populations of apoptotic-sub G1 phase. And we observed the effects of ECT on loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), using the JC-1 probe by DNA flow cytometric analysis. Apoptosis of HepG2 cells by ECT was associated with a down-regulation of anti apoptotic Bcl-2 expression, inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) expression and proteolytic activation of caspase-3 and caspase-9. However, ECT did not affect the pro-apoptotic Bax expression and activity of caspase-8. ECT treatment also concomitant degradation and /or inhibition of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), phospholipase C-1 ($PLC{\gamma}1$). Furthermore, ECT treatment caused a dose-dependent inhibition of iNOS and cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2). Additionally ECT have been implicated in the regulation of telomerase expression. ECT treatment induced the down-regulation of telomerase reverse transcriptase mRNA (hTERT) expression of HepG2 cells. Taken together, these findings suggest that ECT may be a potential chemotherapeutic agent for the control of HepG2 human hepatoma cells.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.475-481
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• 1998

This study was performed to investigate the modifying effect of the general (GPA) and the fermented pilose antler (FPA) on experimental hepatocarcinogenesis and Natural Killer cell activity in rats. Specific pathogen free, 5-week male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups. To induce hepatocarcinogenesis, diethylnitrosamine (DEN, 200 mg/kg, i.p.) was used as a tumor initiator and was given in a single dose at experimental onset. All rats were given a partial hepatectomy (PH) at 3 weeks after experimental onset. Sodium phenobarbital (PB, 0.05% in diet), GPA (0.075% in diet) and FPA (0. 075% in diet) were given from 2 to 8 weeks. Group I of the initiation control group was only given DEN. As initiation-promotion group, Group II was given DEN and then PB. Group III and IV were given DEN-PB-GPA and DEN-PB-FPA, respectively. In hematological analysis, as compared with Group I. the number of white blood cells were significantly increased in the GPA (p<0.01) and the FPA treated group (p<0.05), respectively. Natural killer (NK) cell activity by flow cytometer (FCM) analysis was higher in group of treated with the GPA (35%) than that of the FPA (27.5%), but not significant. Result of the immunohistochemical staining of the glutathione S-transferase placental form (GST-p) indicated that the number of and area of the pre-neoplastic lesions was not significantly changed in Group III and IV compared Group II, respectively. In conclusion, the GPA and the FPA treatment significantly increased the number od WBC in peripheral blood, but the enhancing NK activity and the modifying effect on the experimental hepatocarcinogenesis were not observed.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.565-570
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• 2019

Proteasome inhibitors can improve the efficiency of cancer treatments by inhibiting nuclear factor ${\kappa}B$($NF-{\kappa}B$) activation in cancer cells. Lentils are a type of beans of which consumption of such beans is increasing. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of lentils extract (LE) on the proteasomal activities, $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation, and cell cycle in HepG2 human liver cancer cells. LE treatments inhibited proteasomal activities at concentrations of 10, 50, and $100{\mu}g/mL$ respectively, and repressed $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation at concentrations of 1, 10, and $100{\mu}g/mL$ respectively, in HepG2 cells. LE treatments at concentrations of 1, 10, and $100{\mu}g/mL$ respectively, increased sub-G1 cell population in HepG2 cells, which may be the result of apoptosis. The results suggest that LE inhibited $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation partially with its proteasome inhibitory activities, and the increase of sub-G1 cell population was induced partially, by inhibition of $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation in HepG2 cells.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.107-113
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• 2013

Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of fermented Artemisiae Argyi Folium(AAF) on some activities of human hepatoma cell, HepG2. Method : To investigate the effect of fermented Artemisiae Argyi Folium(AAF) activity on the human hepatoma cells, AAF extracts was fermented by Lactobacillus pentosus K34(AFL) and Sacchromyces cerevisiae STV89(AFS). And the effects of AFL or AFS on the activities of HepG2 cell, such as cell viability, nitric oxide(NO) production and reactive oxygen species(ROS) production, were tested. Result : Human Hepatoma Cells were incubated each for 3 hours and 24 hours. Human Hepatoma Cells treated with the extract was measured with MTT assay. Then AFL was found to be non-toxic at concentrations of 10 ug/mL(3h), 100 ug/mL(24h) or more. AFS was the same result at concentrations of more than 10 ug/mL. The extract increased ROS generation in Human Hepatoma Cells. AFL increased at concentrations of 100 ug/mL more (3h, also 10 ug/mL more) and 50 ug/mL(24h) and AFS increased both 50 ug/mL. In point of NO generation, AFL inhibited at concentrations of 10 ug/mL(3h) and 100 ug/mL(24h) more (3h, also 10 ug/mL more) and AFS also inhibited 50 ug/mL or more. Conclusion : AFL and AFS, obtained from Artemisiae Argyi Folium extracts by fermentation, reduced the NO production and increased ROS production in HepG2 cell, without cytotoxicity on HepG2 cell. The results suggested that AFL and AFS increased the immunological effects of Artemisiae Argyi Folium extracts.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.1048-1055
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• 2018

In the current study, comparisons of Oenothera Biennis seed extracts with water, ethanol, methanol, and 70% ethanol in their total polyphenolics contents, anti-oxidant, anti-neurotoxicity, anti-cancer, and immune-modulatory activities were investigated. Compared with other extracts, those concentrations of total phenolics and flavonoids were the highest in MeOH extract (31.90 mg GAE/g and 20.66 mg QE/g). The radical scavenging and reducing power activities were dose-dependently increased by treatment of O. Biennis seed water, EtOH, MeOH, and 70% EtOH extracts. Furthermore, pretreatment of water, EtOH, and MeOH extracts significantly reduced glutamate-induced cytotoxicity in HT22 hipocampal neuron cells. In the case of cancer cells, MeOH extracts showed lower $IC_{50}$ values in HepG2 ($74.21{\mu}g/ml$), A549 ($188.24{\mu}g/ml$), MCF-7 ($186.42{\mu}g/ml$), and B16 ($101.80{\mu}g/ml$) than other extracts, where those water ($101.96{\mu}g/ml$) and EtOH ($788.39{\mu}g/ml$) extracts showed the lowest $IC_{50}$ activity in HT-29 and PC-3 cells, respectively. O. Biennis seed extracts did not show any cytotoxicity in RAW 264.7 macrophages at the concentration of $1-10{\mu}g/ml$, whereas 70% EtOH extract dose-dependently enhanced nitric oxide (NO) production in RAW 264.7 cells. Overall, we evaluated that various bioactive potentials of O. Biennis seed extracts which would relate with phenolic compounds abundance, thus these can be useful to future developments as functional food ingredients and natural medicines.