전립선 암세포에서 silymarin의 고사 유도 효과 및 기전 연구

Abstract

Silymarin has been known to exert anti-tumoral activity in Korea. However, its molecular mechanism of action is not understood. In this study, we found that silymarin induced apoptosis in androgen-independent prostate cancer DU145 cells as confirmed by DNA fragmentation. Our data demonstrated that silymarin-induced apoptotic cell death was accompanied by activation of caspase-3 and subsequent cleavages of its substrates, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. Also, silymarin-induced apoptotic mechanism of DU145 cells involved the induction of Par-4 protein expression. Taken together, these results suggest that silymarin induces the activation of caspase-3, degradation of PARP, increase of Par-4 expression, and eventually leads to apoptotic cell death.