Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to observe the effect of total flavonoids from Castanea mollissima on MG-63, MCF-7, SMMC-7721 cells.Human osteosarcoma MG-63 cells,breast cancer MCF-7 cells and hepatocarcinoma SMMC-7721 cells were cultured according to standard procedure,and meanwhile C.mollissima total flavonoids with different concentrations were added in three cells.Subsequently,the morphologic characteristic,proliferation and apoptosis of cells were analyzed and compared between the groups of MG-63,MCF-7,SMMC-7721 cells and normal control group using inverted phase contrast microscope,CCK-8 assay and fluorescence microscope.In addition,the expression levels of Bcl-2,Caspase-3 and P21 gene were also detected by RT-PCR.The results indicated that the proliferation of the three cancer cells were significantly depressed by C.mollissima total flavonoids. Coincidentally,the overexpression of Caspase-3 and P21 mRNA and the low-expression of Bcl-2 mRNA were found in the three experimental groups.The IC₅₀ values were respectively 305.58 μg/mL,739.22 μg/mL and 4499.44 μg/mL in 24 h and were 147.18 μg/mL,254.42 μg/mL and 488.40 μg/mL in 48 h of the three groups.C.mollissima total flavonoids can obviously inhibit the proliferation of MG-63,MCF-7 and SMMC-7721 cells and induce apoptosis of the three cells.The depressive role of C.mollissima total flavonoids on MG-63 cells was the strongest,followed by MCF-7 and SMMC-7721 cells.

Key words: total flavonoids from Castanea mollissima, tumor, proliferation, apoptosis