Abstract: AIM: To observe the influences of artesunate (AS) on murine bone marrow hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.METHODS: Murine bone marrow hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells were cultured in vitro with different concentration of AS. The numbers of erythrocyte colony-forming unit(CFUE) or burst-forming unit (BFU-E) in liquid or semisolid culture were counted through light microscope.Apoptosis of cultured cells and the changes of mitochondrial membrane potential were detected by flow cytometry (FCM) analysis, meanwhile, DNA ladder gel electrophoresis were conducted.RESULTS: AS could significantly inhibit the formation of CFU-E and BFU-E (P <0.05), and the inhibition effect showed a dose-dependent manner.The result showed that AS could significantly induce cell apoptosis at the concentration ranges from 0.01 mmol/L to 1.30 mmol/L by DNA fragmentation gel electrophoresis assay, and the advanced stage death rate by FCM analysis had statistical significance (P <0.05).There was a positive correlation between AS dose and the decrease of mitochondria membrane potential (r=0.546, P=0.018).CONCLUSION: AS can significantly inhibit the proliferation and differentiation of murine bone marrow hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.AS can induce apoptosis at low dose and cause cell necrosis at high dose.

Key words: artesunate, hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell, artemisinin, hematotoxicity