title: Honokiol induces cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human gastric carcinoma MGC-803 cell line.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Gastric carcinoma is a malignant tumor that responds poorly to both chemotherapy and radiation therapy. In our study, we investigated the anti-cancer effect of honokiol, an active component isolated and purified from the Magnolia officinalis, in human gastric carcinoma MGC-803 cell line.
  
  
  METHODS
  The cell viability was detected by the CCK8 assay. The cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest were assessed by flow cytometer. The protein expression of cell cycle regulators and tumor suppressors were analyzed by western blotting.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Treatment of human gastric carcinoma cells with honokiol induced cell death in a dose-and time-dependent manner by using CCK8 assay. Consistent with the CCK8 assay, the flow cytometry results showed that the proportion of apoptosis cells had gained when the cells were exposed to honokiol. Moreover, Cyclin B1, CDC2 and cdc25C were downregulated, and the expression of p-CDC2 and p-cdc25c was significantly upregulated upon honokiol treatment. P53 and p21 were significantly upregulated by honokiol treatment. Treatment of MGC-803 cells with honokiol significantly increased the pro-apoptotic Bax level and decreased the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results confirmed that honokiol could induce apoptosis and cell cycle arrest, the underlying molecular mechanisms, at least partially, through activation p53 signaling and downregulation CDC2/cdc25C expression.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Qingpu Branch of Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University 1158 East Gongyuan Road, Shanghai 201700, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Qingpu Branch of Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University 1158 East Gongyuan Road, Shanghai 201700, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Yong
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Peng
keywords: CDC2/cdc25C; Honokiol; cell cycle arrest; gastric carcinoma; p53