A research article published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this issue. This is the first study to report that galangin mediates apoptosis through a mitochondrial pathway.
Their data demonstrated that:
- galangin induces HCC cell apoptosis by triggering Bax translocation to the mitochondria;
- galangin-treated HCC cells causes the release of AIF and cytochrome c into the cytosol from the mitochondria; and
- overexpression of Bcl-2 attenuated galangin-induced HepG2 cells apoptosis, while down-regulated Bcl-2 expression enhanced galangin to induce cell apoptosis.
Reference:
Zhang HT, Luo H, Wu J, Lan LB, Fan DH, Zhu KD, Chen XY, Wen M, Liu HM. Galangin induces apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells via the mitochondrial pathway. World J Gastroenterol 2010; 16(27): 3377-3384
Source:
Ye-Ru Wang
World Journal of Gastroenterology