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Planta Med 2005; 71(1): 28-32
DOI: 10.1055/s-2005-837747
Original Paper
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Cytochrome C Release Induces Apoptosis of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC) by Antitumor Glyfoline

Tsann-Long Su1 , Hwei-Ming Huang2 , Chung-Kwe Wang2 , Han-Chung Wu2 , Chin-Tarng Lin2 , 3
  • 1Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2Institute of Pathology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 3Department of Pathology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
Further Information

Publication History

Received: April 14, 2004

Accepted: October 12, 2004

Publication Date:
27 January 2005 (online)

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Abstract

The mechanism of action, leakage of cytochrome c from mitochondria into cytosol, for the antineoplastic compound glyfoline was examined. Additionally, our current studies revealed that glyfoline induced apoptotic changes and arrested cell cycle procession at the G2/M phase in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). A reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) showed no specific changes of apoptosis-related gene expression (i. e., bax, ICE-α,β, bcl-2, and c-myc). However, no similar changes were detected in fibroblasts and peripheral lymphocytes after glyfoline treatment suggesting that glyfoline has a higher affinity for tumor cells than for normal cells.

Key words

Glycosmis citrifolia - Rutaceae - nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell lines - glyfoline - apoptosis - cytochrome c

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Tsann-Long Su

Institute of Biomedical Sciences

Academia Sinica

Taipei 115

Taiwan

Republic of China

Phone: +886-2-2789-9045

Fax: +886-2-782-9142

Email: tlsu@ibms.sinica.edu.tw