Baicalein 6-Methy Ether 7-Glucoside Induced Apoptosis In Hela Cells Via Caspase Dependent Pathway

Background: Baicalin is a traditional herbal medicine and widely used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and food industries due to its biological functions. In the present study, we report that an analogue of baicalin, baicalein 6-methy ether 7-glucoside (BG), is significantly more toxic to HeLa cells than baicalin and investigate the potential molecular mechanisms. Methods: The effects of baicalin and BG on cell viabilities in vitro were quantified by CCK-8 assay. Apoptosis of HeLa cells treated with BG was analyzed by Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase deoxy-UTP-nick end labeling (TUNEL), immunoblot, flow cytometry and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) assays. Results: BG induced obvious cell toxicity in HeLa cells which is evidenced by the induction of apoptosis with a dose-and time-dependent manner. We observed an increase in apoptotic bodies, DNA fragmentation and Annexin-V positive cells, as well as cleaved-caspase-3, -caspase-9 and poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) expression. We further demonstrated that BG-induced HeLa cell apoptosis involved down-regulating expression of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and up-regulation of the expression of Bcl-2-associated X (Bax). Conclusions: Our data revealed that BG had anti-cancer properties through the induction of the caspase dependent apoptosis. As a potential agent for the treatment of human cervical cancer, further researches of BG are warranted.