Morphological study on apoptosis Hela cells induced by soyasaponins

Soyasaponins are present in legumes and soybeans are the primary dietary source of saponins. SS-II, the second fraction of soyasaponins, was separated by column chromatographic method with D101A macroporous resin from soybean. In this paper, at the concentration range of 100–400 mg/L, SS-II had obvious cytotoxic effect on Hela cells by MTT assay. After Hela cells were treated with SS-II, typical apoptotic morphological changes, including nuclear fragmentation, cytoplasm shrinkage and decrease of cell volume, were observed by fluorescence microscope, transmission electron microscope (TEM) and confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM), respectively. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay also confirmed that SS-II-treated Hela cells showed apoptotic features. The results suggested that soyasaponins were a potential antitumor compound and the apoptosis induced by soyasaponins was a key antitumor mechanism.