To investigate the effect of evodiamine on the proliferation and sensitivity of endometrial cancer cells to irradiation.

After administration of evodiamine, cell proliferations of human endometrial carcinoma cell lines of Ishikawa, HEC-1A, AN3CA were detected by MTT and the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) of drug was calculated. The cell lines most sensitive to drug were screened for further experiment and administered with evodiamine (IC₅₀) and 8 Gy irradiation. Then, cell apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry, the levels of Cleaved Caspase-3, p38 and p-p38 were measured by Western blot, and the level of intracellular ROS was detected by a ROS kit. Cell clone survival was also detected to evaluate cell radiosensitivity.

1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 μmol/L evodiamine could inhibit the proliferation of the cell line of Ishikawa, HEC-1A, and AN3CA with IC₅₀ of(8.32±0.95), (3.98±0.84) and (4.78±0.64)μmol/L, respectively. Compared with radiation alone, after radiation in combination with 4 μmol/L evodiamine, the apoptosis rate of HEC-1A cells was increased from (45.54±4.25)% to (65.87±2.93)% (t=11.010, P<0.05) and cell viability decreased from (41.84±4.18)% to (33.27±3.52)% (t=7.484, P<0.05), and the levels of ROS, Cleaved Caspase-3 and p-p38 were also enhanced. In addition, the sensitivity ratio of evodiamine for HEC-1A cells was calculated to be 1.628.

Evodiamine could inhibit the proliferation, promote apoptosis and enhance the radiosensitivity of endometrial carcinoma cells, in which the intracellular ROS and p38 signaling pathway may be involved.

Evodiamine; Endometrial carcinoma; Radiation sensitivity; Proliferation