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This study was aimed to investigate the inhibitory effect of flavonoids of puerarin (PR) in different concentrations on proliferation of 4 kinds of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines (Kasumi-1, HL-60, NB4 and U937), and to explore its possible mechanism. The MTT method was used to detected the inhibitory effect of PR on proliferation of AML cell lines. The flow cytometry was adopted to determine the change of cell cycle in vitro. The results showed that a certain concentration of PR could inhibit the proliferation of these 4 cell lines effectively in time-and dose-dependent manners, and the intensity of inhibition on 4 kinds of AML cell lines was from high to low as follows: NB4>Kasumi-1>U937>HL-60. Meanwhile, PR could also change cycle process, cell proportion in G1/G0 phase decreased, cells in S phase increased and Sub-diploid peak also appeared. It is concluded that PR can selectively inhibit the proliferation of 4 AML cell lines and block cell cycle process, especially for NB4 cells.

This study was aimed to investigate the effects of flavonoids of puerarin (PR) on apoptosis of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) cell line NB4 cells and its mechanism. The NB4 were treated with PR in vitro, the MTT assay was used to detect the inhibitory effect of PR on cell proliferation. The apoptosis of NB4 cells were detected by flow cytometry labelled with Annexin V/PI. The expressions of pml/rar alpha, bcl-2 and survivin were detected by real time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (real time RT-PCR), the expressions of JNK, p38 MAPK, FasL, caspase 3, caspase 8 were detected by Western blot. The results showed that with the increasing of PR concentrations, the apoptosis rates of NB4 cells were gradually elevated. Simultaneously, the mRNA expression of pml/rar alpha, bcl-2 and survivin decreased, while the protein expression of JNK, FasL, caspase 3 and caspase 8 increased, which presented the positive correlation to PR concentrations. When PR combined with arsenic trioxide (ATO), the expression levels of above mentioned mRNA and protein decreased or increased more significantly. It is concluded that PR can effectively induce the apoptosis of NB4 cells. PR combined with ATO displays synergistic effect. It may be triggered by the activation of JNK signal pathway.