Escin, a natural mixture of triterpene saponins, exhibits antitumor activity against hepatocellular carcinoma.

Escin, a mixture of triterpene saponins extracted from Aesculus wilsonii Rehd., was used to analyze the antitumor effect in hepatocellular carcinoma in vivo and in vitro. At a dose of 2.8 mg/kg, escin had a rather high inhibition ratio (43.5 %) on mice H22 tumor growth in vivo. The results of the SRB cell viability assay showed that escin could induce significant concentration- and time-dependent inhibition of HepG (2) cell viability. Disruption of the G (1)/S phase of cell cycle progression accompanied by the induction of apoptosis were also observed in HepG (2) cells following escin treatment. The results of pulse-field gel electrophoresis and Western blot analysis show the induction of caspase-independent apoptosis by escin. This study provides evidence that escin induces cell cycle checkpoint arrest and caspase-independent cell death in HepG (2) cells, in support of its efficacious potential as a chemopreventive agent.