Abstract: AIM:To detect the inhibition of evodiamine on ten human tumor lines and study its anti-tumor mechanism.METHODS:The inhibition of cell growth of evodiamine was measured by MTT assay. Morphological changes were observed by optical and electron microscopy.Apoptosis and cell cycle distribution of SPC-A 1 cells were determined by flow cytometry.RESULTS:Evodiamine had the selective inhibition on the growth of ten tumor lines.SPC-A 1 cells treated with evodiamine showed typical characteristics of apoptosis, the cells became round and smaller, cell detachment, membrane blebbing, cell shrinkage with a condensed cytoplasm, and vesicle formation (abundant vacuoles with multivesicular bodies).In the presence of 0.5 μg/mL evodiamine, a net increase in the percentage of cells at G₂/M phase was encountered, and this phase was maintained throughout the treatment time.CONCLUSION:Evodiamine has the selective inhibition on the growth of tumor lines and can induce morphological changes, and G₂/M arrest of SPC-A 1 cells.It is probably related to inducing cell apoptosis and cycle arrest of the tumor.

Key words: evodiamine, anti-tumor, apoptosis, cell cycle arrest