Current Research on Cancer Cell Apoptosis Induced By Traditional Chinese Medicine

Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death (PCD) that occurs in multicellular organisms. It is a biochemical event that leads to characteristic cell changes (morphology) and death. Apoptosis is an important biological phenomenon to clean up abnormal cells in human body. Perturbation of apoptotic processes have been implicated in a variety of diseases. Insufficient apoptosis results in uncontrolled cell proliferation which led to cancer development. Traditional Chinese medicine has been demonstrated to be an effective approach in anti-cancer cell proliferation by inducing apoptosis. In this article, we overviewed the apoptotic effect of different component of Chinese herbs on human leukemia cell line HL-60, human lung cancer cell line (SPC-A1) and human hepatoma cell line (SMMC-7721). We further reviewed the potential mechanisms for the anti-cancer action of the extracts from Chinese herbs.