Abstract:
Background and purpose: Traditional Chinese medicine with notable effect and little adverse reaction is increasingly concerned about the medical profession because of its great potential and advantage in treating pancreatic carcinoma. In this experiment, we studied the effects of oridonin on apoptosis and cytoskeletal protein F-actin in human pancreatic carcinoma SW1990 cells. Methods: SW1990 cells in culture medium were treated with different concentrations of oridonin. The inhibitory rate of the cells was measured by MTT assay. Morphology of cell apoptosis was observed by DAPI stain and cell apoptotic rate was detected by flow cytometry (FCM). The morphological changes of F-actin were observed by laser confocal microscopy. Results: The growth of human pancreatic carcinoma SW1990 cells was significantly inhibited by oridonin. Apoptosis morphological changes including condensation of chromatin and nuclear fragmentation were observed clearly by DAPI stain. The early apoptotic rate of SW1990 cells treated with 25, 50 μmol/L oridonin was significantly higher than that of the control group (3.78±0.46, 9.51±0.63 vs 0.73±0.06, P<0.05), and the late apoptotic rate and cell necrosis rate were also significantly higher than that of the control group (14.40±1.78, 20.53±2.54 vs 4.16±0.31, P<0.05). F-actin was showed from polymerization to depolymerization after oridonin treatment. Conclusion: Oridonin can obviously inhibit the proliferation and induce apoptosis of SW1990 cells. The mechanisms may involve the depolymerization of F-actin after treatment with oridonin.

Key words: Oridonin, Pancreatic carcinoma, Antiproliferation, Apoptosis, Cytoskeletal protein