Figure 1

Saikosaponin-a and -d sensitize cancer cells to cisplatin induced cytotoxicity. (A) HeLa cells were treated with increasing concentrations of saikosaponin-a (2-10 μM) or fixed concentration of cisplatin (8 μM) alone or both for 48 hours. Cell death was measured by LDH release assay. Columns, mean of three experiments; bars, SD. (B) HeLa cells were treated with fixed concentration of saikosaponin-a (10 μM) or increasing concentrations of cisplatin (5-10 μM) alone or both for 48 h. Cell death was measured as described in (A). (C) HeLa cells were treated with increasing concentrations of saikosaponin-d or fixed concentration of cisplatin (8 μM) alone or both for 48 hours. Cell death was measured as described in (A). (D) HeLa cells were treated with fixed concentration of saikosaponin-d (2 μM) or increasing concentrations of cisplatin (5-10 μM) alone or both for 48 h. Cell death was measured as described in (A). (E), (F), (G) Siha cells, A549 cells, or SKOV3 cells were treated with cisplatin or 10 μM of saikosaponin-a or 2 μM of saikosaponin-d or combination of saikosaponin and cisplatin for 48 h. The dose of cisplatin is 30 μM for Siha, 8 μM for A549 and SKOV3, respectively. Cell death was measured as described in (A).