title: Baicalein antagonizes acute megakaryoblastic leukemia in vitro and in vivo by inducing cell cycle arrest.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The prognosis of acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) is really dismal, which urges for development of novel treatment. Baicalein is one type of flavonoids extracted from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi (Huang Qin). It inhibited cell proliferation and subcutaneous tumor formation of many tumor cell lines. However, whether baicalein possesses anti-AMKL activities has not been tested.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that baicalein potently inhibited proliferation of multiple AMKL cells including CMK, CMY, Y10, 6133, and 6133 MPL/W515L due to apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at G1 phase. Unexpectedly, caspase inhibitor z-VAD-fmk did not restore cell proliferation. In contrast, ectopic expression of Cyclin D1 efficiently antagonized the inhibitory effect of baicalein. In addition, baicalein induced differentiation of 6133 MPL/W515L cells. Finally, baicalein promoted mice survival and reduced disease burden in a mouse model of AMKL.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Baicalein possesses potent anti-AMKL activity in vitro and in vivo. Baicalein may be a potent reagent for AMKL therapy.
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, 16 Luo-Jia-Shan Road, Wuhan, 430072 Hubei People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chunjie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, 16 Luo-Jia-Shan Road, Wuhan, 430072 Hubei People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jiancheng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, 16 Luo-Jia-Shan Road, Wuhan, 430072 Hubei People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhenzhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese Medicine, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, 169 Donghu Road, Wuhan, 430071 Hubei People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shangqin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, 16 Luo-Jia-Shan Road, Wuhan, 430072 Hubei People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
keywords: AMKL; Baicalein; Cell cycle arrest; Differentiation; Proliferation, apoptosis