Emodin inhibits LOVO colorectal cancer cell proliferation via the regulation of the Bcl-2/Bax ratio and cytochrome c

In this study, the effect of emodin and its mechanism of action were investigated in LOVO colorectal cancer cells. Cell growth was determined using a Cell Counting kit-8 assay, and the results demonstrated that emodin significantly inhibited the growth of LOVO cells in a concentration-dependent manner. In order to investigate the anticancer mechanism of emodin, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assays were performed to determine the B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2)/Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax) expression ratio in LOVO colorectal cancer cells following treatment with emodin. The results showed that emodin induced a significant increase in the Bax expression level and a marked reduction of the Bcl-2 expression level in LOVO cells. In addition, emodin was found to have an inhibitory effect on the mitochondrial membrane potential and the results from the western blot analysis revealed that cytochrome c was released from the mitochondria to the cytoplasm. In combination, these results suggest that emodin inhibits cancer cell growth via the regulation of the Bcl-2/Bax ratio and by its effect on the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway.