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Antitumor activity of a sulfated polysaccharide from Enteromorpha intestinalis targeted against hepatoma through mitochondrial pathway

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

A sulfated polysaccharide (EI-SP), extracted from Enteromorpha intestinalis that is a kind of algae, is found to have anticancer activity. This study was designed to investigate the anti-tumor effect of EI-SP on human hepatoma HepG2 cell line and its possible mechanisms. An MTT assay showed that EI-SP could specifically inhibit the growth of human hepatoma HepG2 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Analysis by flow cytometry indicated that the apoptosis of tumor cells increased after treatment with EI-SP in range of 100–400 μg/ml. Furthermore, Western blot analysis showed that EI-SP treatment led to decreased protein expression of Bcl-2 and an increase in Bax, cleaved caspase-3, cleaved caspase-9 and cleaved poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). Moreover, it was found that EI-SP caused a loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψ m) and the release of cytochrome c to the cytosol. Collectively, our results showed that the EI-SP induces apoptosis in HepG2 cells involving a caspases-mediated mitochondrial signalling pathway.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gastroenterology, Tangdu Hosptial, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, 710038, China

    Xuxia Wang, Jingjie Wang, Zhenxiong Liu & Shuguang Zhao

  2. West China School of Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Ying Chen

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  1. Xuxia Wang
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Correspondence to Shuguang Zhao.

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Wang, X., Chen, Y., Wang, J. et al. Antitumor activity of a sulfated polysaccharide from Enteromorpha intestinalis targeted against hepatoma through mitochondrial pathway. Tumor Biol. 35, 1641–1647 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-013-1226-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-013-1226-9

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