Effect of methanol extract of triphala (MET) on apoptosis of HCCSCs (a) and HCCSC p53-shRNA cells (b). Cells were treated with IC(50) of 5-fluorouracil (75 μg/mL) and MET (104 μg/mL) and apoptosis was analyzed by western ...
3.5. Methanol Extract of Triphala Induces Apoptosis by Elevating Bax/Bcl-2 Ratio
To evaluate the mechanism implicated in the triphala-induced apoptosis, we measured intrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway proteins in HCCSC following treatment with 104 μg/mL of MET or 570 μM (75 μg/mL) of 5-fluorouracil. Triphala (MET) treated HCCSCs showed increased Bax and decreased Bcl-2 protein levels in the cytoplasm and increased Bax/Bcl-2 ratio (Figure 5). Although FU treatment elevated Bcl-2 levels, Bax/Bcl-2 ratio was the highest in the FU group.