OBJECTIVETo study the inhibitory effect of serum containing Fuzheng Jiedu decoction on leukemia multi-drug-resistance K562/A02 cells and its possible mechanism.

METHODSThe MTT method was used to detect the inhibitory rate of K562/AO2 cells treated with serum containing Fuzheng Jiedu decoction; the flow cytometry was used to detect the inhibitory effect of serum containing medicin on growth of K562/AO2 cells and P-gp expression; the Q-PCR was used to assay the BCL-2 mRNA expression; the Western blot was used to detect the BCL-2 protein expression.

RESULTSMTT cytotoxic test showed serum containing Fuzheng Jiedu decoction could inhibit K562/A02 cell growth, and the inhibitory rate increased with the increase of drug concentration; the flow cytometry showed that the serum containing Fuzheng Jiedu decoction could promote K562/A02 cell apoptosis in a concentration-dependent manner. qPCR and Western blot showed that serum containing Fuzheng Jiedu decoction could down-regulate the protein expression of BCL-2. Fuzheng Jiedu decoction could reduce the protein expression of P-gp on the K562/A02 cell membrane.

CONCLUSIONserum containing Fuzheng Jiedu decoction can promote K562/A02 cell apoptosis, its mechanism of inducing apoptosis may be related with the inhibition of BCL-2 and P-gp protein expression.