Schizandra chinensis Baill (Magnoliaceae) fruit extract (SCE) is considered a traditional herbal medicine for the treatment and alleviation of various diseases. Gastric cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide, and the first most common in Korea. This study investigates the mechanism of SCE-induced apoptosis in AGS human gastric cancer cells. SCE concentrations from 100 to 400 µg/ml were used. Cell viabilities were determined using MTT assay. Members of the Bcl-2 family and Bax were detected by Western blotting. RT-PCR was performed to measure the expression level of the Fas/FasL pro-apoptotic genes. SCE inhibited the proliferation AGS cells for 24 or 72 h (inhibition by 3.1% ± 5.2% at 100 µg/ml and 87.3% ± 7.6% at 400 µg/ml at 24 h and by 40.2% ± 5.3% 100 µg/ml and 95.3% ± 1.3% 400 µg/ml at 72 h) and increased the sub-G1 phase (25.3% ± 5.2% at 100 µg/ml and 370.2% ± 7.2% at 400 µg/ml) and the mitochondrial membrane depolarization (11.2% ± 2.1% at 100 µg/ml and 311.5% ± 6.1% at 400 µg/ml). The SCE-induced apoptotic cell death showed the down-regulation of Bcl-2, but up-regulation of Bax. Subsequently, SCE increased the expression level of Fas/FasL, activated caspase-9 and -3, and increased reactive oxygen species generation. Also, JNK II inhibitor or a p38 MAPK inhibitor inhibited SCE-induced cell death. These results indicate that SCE might be an effective chemotherapeutic for the treatment of human gastric cancer.

Various nanopatterning techniques have been developed to improve cell proliferation and differentiation efficiency. As we previously reported, nanopillars and pores are able to sustain human pluripotent stem cells and differentiate pancreatic cells. From this, the nanoscale patterns would be effective environment for the co-culturing of epithelial and mesenchymal cell types. Interestingly, the nanopatterning selectively reduced the proliferative rate of mesenchymal cells while increasing the expression of adhesion protein in epithelial type cells. Additionally, co-cultured cells on the nanopatterning were not negatively affected in terms of cell function metabolic ability or cell survival. This is in contrast to conventional co-culturing methods such as ultraviolet or chemical treatments. The nanopatterning appears to be an effective environment for mesenchymal co-cultures with typically low proliferative rates cells such as astrocytes, neurons, melanocytes, and fibroblasts without using potentially damaging treatments.