title: Biological activity of dihydrotanshinone I: effect on apoptosis.
abstract: Recently, we have found for the first time that dihydrotanshinone I, isolated from Salvia miltiorrhiza, exhibited cytotoxicity against various tumor cell lines. To investigate whether the mechanism underlying dihydrotanshinone I toxicity involved apoptosis in cancer cell lines, we examined cell growth arrest and cell death by flow cytometric analysis and DNA fragmentation assay. Dihydrotanshinone I induced cell growth arrest during the S phase and subsequently, apoptosis, following its application to K562/ADR cells, whereas cryptotanshinone did not have these effects. These results suggest that the mode of action of dihydrotanshinone I involves apoptotic pathways that are different from those involved in cryptotanshinone toxicity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, College of Natural Science, Kyungpook National University, Taegu 702-701, Korea.
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee