Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Ginseng polysaccharide can promote normal hematopoiesis and inhibit proliferation of leukemia K562 cells. However, their mechanisms have not been known.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of ginseng polysaccharide on proliferation and differentiation of chronic myelocytic leukemia K562 cells in vitro.
METHODS: K562 cells were kindly presented by Department of Clinical Laboratory, Chongqing Medical University. Ginseng polysaccharide was purchased from Shanxi Pude Medicines Co., Ltd. The density of K562 cells with logarithmic phase was regulated to 7×108/L. The conventional culture was performed in the blank control group. Ginseng polysaccharide group was incubated with 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 600, 800 mg/L ginseng polysaccharide respectively. The proliferation of K562 cells was examined by MTT; Benzidine and Wright’s staining were used to observe the features of erythroid lineage differentiated from K562 cells. Meantime, the apoptotic rate of K562 cells was determined by flow cytometry.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Ginseng polysaccharide could significantly inhibit the proliferation and promote differentiation of K562 cells into erythroid linage cells in vitro. The proliferation of K562 cells was inhibited. The morphological feature of K562 cells tended to be more mature, showing small volume, reduced nuclear diameter, abundant cytoplasm, and decreased karyoplasmic ratio. Hemoglobin in K562 cells induced by ginseng polysaccharide increased significantly. Apoptotic rate of K562 cells treated with ginseng polysaccharide (100-800 mg/L) increased significantly in a concentration dependent fashion; the inhibitory rate reached a peak at 48 hours. These indicate that ginseng polysaccharide may inhibit the proliferation of K562 cells, promote their apoptosis and induce the differentiation of K562 cells into erythroid cells.