• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.1-15
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• 1991

Bigihwan which has been widely used in Oh-jug in oriental Medicine was investigated on its antitumor effect employing blood cancer cell lines. K 562 derived from human erytholeukemia, Raji from lymphoma and $MO_4$ from hlastogenic cancer were used in this study to see the analytical evaluation of Bigihwan' s antitumor effect using three different kinds of methods such as $^{3}H-thymidine$ up take assay. MTT assay and live cell counts by Trypan blue assay. The result obtained are as follows. 1. When higher than 10% Bigihwan was treated. inhibitory effect of tumor killing action was observed showing the increasing order of $MO_4$, K 562 and Raji(Fig. 3). 2. When 1 to 5% of Bigi-hwan was treated, 4 to 30% of tumor cell survival was observed according to various blood tumor cell lines suggesting that antitumor effect of Bigi-hwan was different as the characteristics of tumor cells showing 70 to 95% cell killing effent(Fig. 4). 3. Compared the survivals of cells by relative scales though the initial cpm was variable because of different cell growth rate. Raji was most effective being killed 95% by the treatment of 1% Bigihwan while Raji and K562 showed 93% by 5% Bigihwan.(Fig. 5) 4. The survival rate of Raji derived from Burkitt lymphoma was rather increased to 2.3 times when Bigihwan concentration was increased from 1 to 10% lmplying of refraining from over use of this anticancer drug. specially to lymphoma patients(Fig. 5). 5. Bigihwan was most effective to K 562 and then $MO_4$ showing 95% tumor cell death by using 1% of this anticancer drug while it was least effective to Raji showing only 68% of tumor cell death(Fig.7). 6. Judging from the all the analytical methods used in this study, through all different three tumor cell lines. Bigihwan was most effective to K 562 derived from human erythroleukemia.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.96-112
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• 1991

Attempts were made to see the antitumor effects of Sigbunhwan widely used in Oh-jug(五積) employing tumor cells Lines such as K562 derived from erythroleukemia, Raji from lympoma and MO-4 from blastogenic tumor. Different concentrations of Sigbunhwan and combined therapy of Sigbunhwan and Bigihwan were treated to those tumor cells lines and then live cells were counted by Trypan blue assay and $^{3}H-Thymidine$ uptake assay. The results obtained were as follows. 1. $^{3}H-Thymidine$ uptake of various tumor cells lines when treated with high concentrations of Sigbunhwan for 48hours showed that the rate of DNA synthesis decreased 76% to 90% by the treatment of 1% Sigbunhwan but this inhibition was rather decreased when Sigbunhwan concentration was increased to 10, 15 and 20%.(Fig 3) 2. When Sigbunhwan was combined with Bigihwan which was also an antitumor drug, the effectiveness of tumor cells dealth was somewhat inceased showing a generally similar pattern to that of Bigihwan alone used.(Fig 4) This combination therapy also showed that higher concentrations of antitumor agent were no more·effective or rather harmful according to the tumor cells lines having different growth rate.(Fig 5,6) 3. The antitumor effects of combined Sigbunhwan and Bigihwan was decreased if the concentrations of this combination therapy was increased to 10 times showing relatively sluggish decrease in K562 and MO-4 but a sharp inhibitory effect in Raji which grows slowly.(Fig 7). 4. When Sigbunhwan was treated at low concentrations, K562 was more inhibited by 0.75% to 1.0% of Sigbunhwan while Raji was more inhibited by 0.25% to 0.5% of that.(Fig 8) 5. When Sigbunhwan was treated together with Bigihwan at low concentrations, the tumor cells death rate was 75% to 89% in Baji, 31% to 95% in MO-4 and 41 to 89% in K562, showing this combination therapy was more effect to Raji derived from lymphoma.(Fig 9) 6. The number of live tumor cells was correlated with optical density of MTT assay when measured with 2% Sigbunhwan treatment to tumor cells lines for 24 hours.(Fig 10) 7. 7 days treatment of 0.25% Sigbunhwan was compared with one day treatment of 1% suggesting long term treatment more effective.(Fig 11)

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.15-27
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• 2020

Objectives : We selected three herb-combined remedies, Bigihwan (BGH), Daechilgitang (DCGT) and Mokwhyangbinranghwan (MHBRH), through Donguibogam text-mining analysis, and evaluated their anti-cancer effects on human hepatocellular carcinoma Hep3B cells. Methods : Cytotoxicity was assessed by an MTT assay. Apoptosis rate, autophagy and ROS level were detected by flow cytometry. The autophagy was also observed by Cyto-ID staining fluorescence microscopy. The expression of autophagy, mitophagy and pexophagy regulatory proteins was detected by Western blot analysis. Results : BGH showed the strongest effect among the three prescriptions in inhibiting Hep3B cell viability, which was associated with the induction of apoptosis and autophagy. Autophagy blockers improved cell viability and reduced apoptosis after BGH and DCGT treatments, indicating that autophagy by these prescriptions enhanced Hep3B cells against their cytotoxicity. However, MHBRH enhanced the reduction of cell viability and apoptosis by autophagy blockers. Induction of autophagy by BGH treatment was associated with mitophagy due to mitochondrial dysfunction than DCGT and MHBRH-treated cells. In addition, induction of apoptosis by BGH treatment was ROS-dependent and showed the possibility of pexophagy involvement. Conclusion : Although further studies need to be conducted to study the efficacy and mechanism of accurate anticancer activity, the present results will serve as important sources of understanding the mechanism of action of herbal remedies prescribed for liver disease as documented in Donguibogam.

• Herbal Formula Science
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.67-83
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• 2022

Objectives : In this study, the anticancer activity of water extracts of three herbal medicine formulas, Bigihwan (BGH), Daechilgitang (DCGT) and Mokwhyangbinranghwan (MHBRH) listed in Donguibogam, was evaluated in HepG2 cells, a human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line. Methods : We investigated whether the cell viability of HepG2 cells was inhibited by the treatment of water extracts of three prescriptions, and whether their viability inhibitory effect was related to the induction of apoptosis. In addition, the role of autophagy on the induction of apoptosis by the treatment of these extracts was investigated. Results : The anticancer activity of the three water extracts on HepG2 cells was due to induction of apoptosis, not necrosis. Among them, BGH activated the caspase-dependent intrinsic apoptosis pathway associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. However, autophagy was induced more than 2-fold in DCGT-treated HepG2 cells, and the anticancer activity of DCGT was enhanced 1.5-fold in the presence of an autophagy inhibitor, but was attenuated in BGH and MHBRH-treated cells. Conclusion : The results of this study indicate that DCGT-induced autophagy was involved in the inhibition of apoptosis, whereas autophagy by BGH and MHBRH was related to induction of apoptosis.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.460-467
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• 2020

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the word. Although radiation and chemotherapy are generally effective, there are various side effects that greatly limit the effectiveness of these treatments. Therefore, traditional herbs may have potential as important resources for the discovery of liver cancer therapeutics. In this study, we selected three Korean herbal medicine formulas from the Donguibogam, namely Bigihwan (BGH), Daechilgithang (DCGT), and Mokwhyangbinranghwan (MHBRH), and evaluated their anti-cancer effects on HCC cells. According to our results of three ethanol extracts, BGH was more effective at suppressing HCC growth than DCGT or MHBRH. Furthermore, flow cytometry analysis showed that inhibition of HCC proliferation by the three extracts was associated with the induction of apoptosis and autophagy. In particular, BGH significantly increased mitochondrial impairment and showed the possibility of inducing mitophagy in comparison with the other two extracts. BGH prominently upregulated the levels of microtubule-associated protein light chain-3 which was accompanied by a decrease in the expression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 without altering the expression of pro-apoptotic Bax. In addition, the levels of PTEN-induced kinase 1 were also markedly increased in BGH-treated HCC cells. Moreover, autophagy blocking improved cell viability and reduced apoptosis after the three treatments, indicating that autophagy by these extracts enhances HCC cells against cytotoxicity. In conclusion, our findings show that BGH demonstrates the highest anti-cancer activity among the three formulas and inhibits the proliferation of HCC cells through autophagy induction.