The objective of this study was to investigate the antiproliferative effect
and the mechanism of trypsininhibitor (TI) from sweet potato [
Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. 'Tainong 57'] storage roots on NB4promyelocytic leukemia cells. The results showed that TI inhibited cellular growth of NB4 promyelocyticleukemia cells in a time-dependent
and dose-dependent manner,
and treatment for 72 h induced amarked inhibition of cellular growth, showing an IC
50 of 57.1 ± 8.26
![](/images/entities/mgr.gif)
g/mL. TI caused cell cyclearrest at the G1 phase as determined by flow cytometric analysis
and apoptosis as shown by DNAladdering. TI-induced cell apoptosis involved p53, Bcl-2, Bax,
and cytochrome
c protein in NB4 cells.P53
and Bax proteins were accumulated,
and antiapoptotic molecule Bcl-2 was decreased in thetested cells in a time-dependent manner during TI treatment. TI also induced a substantial releaseof cytochrome
c from the mitochondria into the cytosol. Hence, TI induced apoptosis in NB4 cellsthrough a mitochondria-dependent pathway, which was associated with the activation of caspase-3
and -8. These results demonstrated that TI induces NB4 cell apoptosis through the inhibition of cellgrowth
and the activation of the pathway of caspase-3
and -8 cascades.