Z-AJOENE INDUCES TUMOR-CELLS TO DIE BY APOPTOSIS

To unravel the pharmacological actions of garlic, a simple thio-compou nd, z-ajoene, was purified from the fresh cloves. Three tumor cell lin es were subjected to treatment with z-ajoene at different concentratio ns in vitro and the morphological changes, DNA content of the cells an d chromosome DNA fragmentation were observed by light microscopy, flow cytometry and agarose gel electrophoresis respectively. It was found that z-ajoene induced cell death by apoptosis in human HL-60 promyeloc ytic leukemia cells, MGc-803 gastric mucoid adenocarcinoma cells and M olt-4 T lymphocyte leukemia cells. Western blot assay showed that z-aj oene inhibited proto-oncogene bcl-2 expression in the three different kinds of tumor cells, suggesting that z-ajoene may be a potential agen t for tumor chemotherapy.