[Effects of Fuzheng Yiliu Granule-medicated serum on apoptosis of liver cancer cells from mice and its mechanism].

OBJECTIVE To study the effects of Fuzheng Yiliu Granule (FZYLG)-medicated serum on apoptosis of liver cancer cells H22 from mice and its mechanism. METHODS Liver cancer cells H22 from mice were incubated in culture media containing sera from rabbits medicated with different doses of FZYLG. Flow cytometry was used to examine the cell cycle and analyze the apoptotic rate of the H22 cells. The morphological changes of the H22 cells were observed by transmission electron microscope and the apoptosis related proteins Bcl-2 and Bax were examined by streptavidin-biotin peroxidase complex (SABC) method. RESULTS FZYLG-medicated serum could influence the cell cycle and stop the proliferation of H22 cells at the G(1)/G(0) phase with apoptotic peak being detected. In culture media with FZYLG-medicated sera, the expression of Bcl-2 decreased while that of Bax increased as compared with that in culture medium with non-medicated serum (P<0.05). CONCLUSION FZYLG-medicated serum can induce apoptosis of the liver cancer cells H22 by influencing the cell cycle, down-regulating the expression of Bcl-2 and up-regulating the expression of Bax.