Objective: To investigate the death mode of human hepatoma cells exposed to matrine and the role of glutathione (GSH) and cytochrome c. Methods: The MTT test and Cell Death Detection ELISA were used to identify cell death mode and viability of cells exposed to matrine. The volume of intracellular GSH was detected by GSH reductase. Finally Western blotting was chosen to analyze the expression of cytochrome c and Caspase-9 in HepG2 cells treated by matrine. Results: The apop-totic cell death induced by matrine in Hep G2 cells dramatically increased in the time-, dose-dependent manner. Matrine can exhaust intracellular GSH effectively to change the redox state in cells. Furthermore it affect the cytotoxicity of matrine. Re-sults of Western blotting showed that matrine induced the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria to cytoplasm, and then stimulate the cleavage of Caspase-9 in a time-dependent manner. Conclusion: Matrine induced apoptosis in Hep G2 cells through the mitochondrial pathway, and oxidative stress via depletion of GSH is directly involved in the apoptotic process.
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