黄芪注射液干预人宫颈永生化上皮细胞体外实验模型的细胞凋亡变化

Effects of astragalus injection on human immortalized cervical epithelial cell apoptosis in vitro

BACKGROUND: Immortalized cervical epithelial cells H8 can become cancerous under the induction of carcinogenic agent, and may cause cervical cancer when there is a cofactor interaction. However, there is still a lack of effective intervention for female patients with precancerous lesions, and this treatment is blank in the clinic.  OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects and mechanism of astragalus injection on apoptosis of human immortalized cervical epithelial cells H8.METHODS: This study contained two groups: astragalus drug group and the blank control group. (1) Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect DNA fragments of apoptotic H8 after astragalus injection. (2) Enzyme-labeling instrument was used to analyze the changes in caspase-3 and caspase-9 activities a fter astragalus injection. (3) Western blot assay was used to detect the protein expression changes of caspase-3, caspase-9 and PARP in H8 cells after astragalus injection.  RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) ELISA results showed that at 0, 6, 12 and 24 hours after 20 g/L astragalus injection, DNA fragments were gradually increased with time prolonged in a time-dependent effect (P < 0.05). (2) Enzyme-labeling instrument demonstrated that at 0, 6, 12 and 24 hours after 20 g/L astragalus injection, caspase-3 and caspase-9 activities increased in a time-dependent manner (P < 0.05). (3) At 0, 6, 12 and 24 hours after 20 g/L astragalus injection, the expression of cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-9 were gradually increased in H8 cells (P < 0.05). Cleaved PARP protein expression was gradually decreased (P < 0.05). These findings indicate that astragalus injection could obviously induce H8 apoptosis, which may be associated with the upregulated protein expression of caspase-3 and caspase-9.