Visit our Expo - Redox and Inflammation signaling 2012

Session XVI : Chemopreventive agents Poster XVI, 9
Wogonin, a plant flavone, potentiates etoposide-induced apoptosis in tumor cells
Eibai Lee1, Riyo Enomoto1, Chie Suzuki1, Masataka Ohno1, Toshinori Ohashi1, Azusa
Miyauchi1, Eriko Tanimoto1, Kaori Maeda1, Hiroyuki Hirano2, Toshio Yokoi2 and
Chiyoko Sugahara1
1Department of Pharmacology and 2Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty
of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kobe Gakuin University, Ikawadani-cho, Nishi-ku, Kobe
651-2180 Japan. E-mail : elee@pharm.kobegakuin.ac.jp
Etoposide, a podophylotoxin anticancer agent, induces apoptotic cell death in normal and
cancer cells. Etoposide-induced apoptosis plays a role in not only anticancer effect but also
adverse reaction such as myelosuppression. Since we have found that wogonin, a flavone
found in Scutellaria baicalensis, suppresses thymocyte apoptosis induced by various
compounds including etoposide, we examined the effect of this flavone on etoposide-induced
apoptosis in cancer cells. Although wogonin itself hardly affected biochemical and
morphological features of apoptosis in leukemia cells such as Jurkat and HL-60 cells, this
flavone significantly potentiated etoposide-induced apoptosis in these cells. Similarly,
wogonin accelerated etoposide-induced cell death in lung cancer cells. Since wogonin had no
effect on the action of other anticancer agents such as 5-FU and cisplatin, this flavone seems
to accelerate only apoptotic cell death induced by etoposide in cancer cells. These results
suggest that the modification of etoposide-induced apoptosis by wogonin may be available to
reduce the adverse reaction of this agent.
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