Abstract:Objective To study the effect of tea ployphenols (TP), cisplatin (DDP) alone and in combination on the proliferation and apoptosis ability of human lung carcinoma cell line A549 in vitro and the mechanism. Methods A549 cells were treated with 10 μg/ml TP (TP group), 5 μg/ml DDP (DDP group) and 10 μg/ml TP plus 5 μg/ml DDP (TP+DDP group) respectively, the cells without treatment were used as the blank control group. Cell proliferation was determined by MTT assay. The morphology of apoptotic cells was observed by Annexin V/PI double staining. Flow cytometry was used to analyze apoptosis. The expressions of ERK1/2 and p-AKT were detected by Western blot. Results The cell proliferation rate of the TP, DDP and TP+DDP groups was (91.0 ± 3.6)%, (84.3 ± 5.0) % and (70.3 ± 4.2)% respectively. The anti-proliferation effect of the TP+DDP group was superior to that of the DDP group (P < 0.05). The results of flow cytometry showed that the apoptotic rate was not obviously changed in the TP group, but the apoptotic rate in the TP+DDP group was significantly different from that in the DDP group (P < 0.05). Low doses of TP had no significant apoptosis-promoting effect. Western blot analysis showed that the expressions of ERK1/2 and p-AKT decreased in the DDP group, which were significantly different from those in the TP+DDP group (P < 0.05).Conclusions TP combined with DDP can significantly inhibit the proliferation of A549 cells, induce cell apoptosis, which may be associated with the reduction of ERK1/2 expression and AKT phosphorylation.