Ginsenoside Rh2 Showing Ability to Induce Apoptosis in HeLa Cells

This paper deals with the inhibitory mechanisms of ginsenoside \{G Rh 2\} on the growth of tumor cells. \{G Rh 2\} significantly inhibited the proliferation of human cervical adenocarcinoma HeLa cells in a time and dose dependent manner. G Rh 2 induced apoptotic manifestations in HeLa cells as evidenced by the changes in the cell morphology, the DNA fragmentation and the activation of caspases. Caspase inhibitors, caspase family inhibitor, z Val Ala Asp fmk(z VAD fmk); caspase 1 inhibitor, Ac Tyr Val Ala Asp chloromethyl ketone(Ac YVAD cmk); caspase 3 inhibitor, z Asp Glu Val Asp fmk(z DEVE fmk) and caspase 8 inhibitor, \{z Ile \}Glu Asp fmk(z IETD fmk) effectively attenuated G Rh 2 induced cell death. The activities of caspase 1 and caspase 3 were increased in the G Rh 2 induced apoptotic process. However, caspase inhibitors can not inhibit G Rh - 2 induced cell death completely. These results suggest that G Rh 2 induced cell death is mediated by the activation of caspase cascade, but there might be some other pathways for induction of this apoptosis.