Mixed steroidal tetraoxanes induce apoptotic cell death in tumor cells.

In this study we investigated the antiproliferative activity of six mixed steroidal tetraoxanes against various tumor cell lines, the toxicity against normal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), and the mode of HeLa cell death induced by these compounds. Investigated tetraoxanes exerted a dose dependent antiproliferative action at micromolar concentrations toward target tumor cell lines. Treatment of HeLa cells for 24 h with all tetraoxanes induced apoptosis, as confirmed by morphological analysis and by the appearance of a typical ladder pattern in the DNA fragmentation assay.