title: Potent apoptotic effects of saponins from Liliaceae plants in L1210 cells.
abstract: We isolated eight saponins, a hexacyclic lanosterol tetraglycoside (1), a 27-norlanosterol tetraglycoside (2) and six spirostanol oligoglycosides (3-8), from the plants of the family Liliaceae. In murine leukaemic L1210 cells, saponins 5 and 7 at a concentration of 1 microM showed potent cytotoxic activity and the activities were in the following decreasing order: 5, 7, 1, 3, 2, 8, 4, 6. At a concentration of 10 microM, not only 5 and 7 but also 3 and 8 markedly caused cell death. The flow cytometric analysis indicated that 7 and 8 caused a concentration- and time-dependent apoptosis of L1210 cells (EC50 value = approximately 5 microM). The morphological observation using a light microscope revealed that both 7 and 8 induced shrinkage in cell soma and chromatin condensation, suggesting apoptotic cell death. Moreover, in agarose gel electrophoretic analysis, a typical apoptotic DNA ladder pattern was observed after treatment with both 7 and 8. These results suggest that 7 and 8 caused the death of L1210 cells through the apoptotic process. These compounds may become powerful pharmacological tools for studying the molecular mechanism of apoptosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Candra
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsunaga
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mimaki
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuroda
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sashida
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ohizumi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D053938:DNA Fragmentation / Q000187:drug effects*; D007939:Leukemia L1210; D019668:Liliaceae / Q000737:chemistry*; D051379:Mice; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology; D027343:Rhizome / Q000737:chemistry; D012503:Saponins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D010936:Plant Extracts; D012503:Saponins