Planta Medica, Table of Contents Planta Med 2004; 70(9): 797-802DOI: 10.1055/s-2004-827225 Original Paper Pharmacology © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York Structure-Activity Relationships of Saponins from Gleditsia sinensis in Cytotoxicity and Induction of Apoptosis Lei Zhong1 , Ping Li1 , Jian Han1 , Guiqin Qu1 , Dean Guo1 1The State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, P. R. China Recommend Article Abstract Buy Article Abstract Thirteen compounds were isolated from the anomalous fruits of Gleditsia sinensis on the basis of bioassay-guided fractionation. These saponins together with six analogues or related compounds were tested for their cytotoxicities against six tumor cell lines by the MTT method. The induction of apoptosis in HL-60 cells by these compounds was determined through flow cytometric analysis. Some structure-activity relationships in cytotoxicity and induction of apoptosis were identified. The evaluation of the cytotoxicity and the ability to induce apoptosis revealed that some important structural features are required for activity. A valuable model which enables prediction of their activities was established and may be employed for the drug design of new Gleditsia saponin analogues. Key words Gleditsia sinensis - Leguminosae - saponin - cytotoxicity - apoptosis - structure-activity relationship Full Text References References 1 Jiangsu New Medical C ollege, Zhong Yao Da Ci D ian. Shanghai People’s Public Health Publishing House Shanghai; 1977: pp 1144, 1145, 1147, 2198 2 Nakashima N, Kimura I, Kimara M, Matsura H. Isolation of pseudoprototimosaponin AIII from rhizomes of Anemerrhena asphodeloides and its hypoglycemic activity in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice. Journal of Natural Products. 1993; 56 345-50 3 Wu R, Chiang H, Fu W, Chien K, Chung Y, Horng L. 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