Recently, oxidative damage to the mitochondrial membrane
due to increased generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has
been demonstrated to play a important role in apoptosis.28–30
Mitochondria has also been implicated as a source of ROS during
apoptosis. Reduced mitochondria membrane potential has recently
been shown to lead to increased generation of ROS and apoptosis.31
We herein studied the loss of mitochondrial transmembrane potential
resulting in the generation of ROS by assessing ROS generation
caused by target compound 7b in vitro, using the fluorescent
probe 2,7-dichlorofluorescein diacetate (DCF-DA) determined by
fluorescence microscopy. Treated with compound 7b, cells exhibited
stronger fluorescence intensity in cytoplasm, while not treated
with compound 7b, cells under the same experimental procedures
were used as control and the fluorescence detected in these cells
were weak and spread all over the cells. For fluorescence microscopy,
Figure 8 revealed that HeLa cells treated with the compound
7b appeared in stronger green fluorescence (in the web version),
indicating that compound 7b significantly induced apoptosis
against HeLa cell line. This phenomenon implied that the increment
of ROS might play a role as an early mediator in compound
7b induced apoptosis. These findings pointed to an effect of compound
7b on mitochondrial function and accumulation of ROS.
These features were cues for the induction of apoptosis.