白血病是一種血液的癌症疾病，他是由一種不成熟的白血球稱之為「白血球母細胞」過度增生所導致。人類血癌細胞（HL60）是一種人類骨隨性白血病細胞（Human promyelocytic leukemia cells），在1977年由一位急性骨隨性白血病病人身上分離出來，目前為止已經有許多實驗是利用他做為血癌研究的實驗模組及目標。18α甘草次酸，學名是18α-Glycyrrhetinic acid，簡寫為（18-GAC）是甘草酸的衍生物，是從甘草的根部所萃取出來，目前已有文獻指出甘草次酸的抗癌性以及抗發炎性，但是對癌症細胞，尤其是血癌的了解仍略顯不足。再本篇實驗探討中，我們利用18α甘草次酸（18-GAC）處理人類血癌細胞（HL60）來觀察其對癌細胞的效果。研究結果顯示，甘草次酸會透過誘導caspase家族的活化（caspase-3, -8, -9）來引起HL60產生細胞凋亡機制，而且從西方點墨法的結果得知引起粒線體相關的凋亡蛋白（Endo G, AIF）有被從粒線體釋出病去影響下游的caspase家族進而促使細胞產生凋亡。從免疫螢光染色（共軛焦顯微鏡）的結果更加證實了cytochrome-c和AIF在隨著18GAC處理時間差的情況下有增加以及入核的情況產生。18GAC對於人類血癌HL60細胞造成抑制的影響，足以讓18GAC成為有潛力的開發藥物用於臨床的病人身上。
Leukemia is a type of cancer happens in the blood, is characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blast cells. HL60 is a kind of leukemia that was isolated from a myelocyticpatient in 1977, and is uses widely in the file of researching model ever since the isolation. 18α-Glycyrrhetinic acid is the derivate of Glycyrrhetinic acid, which is extracted from the root of Glycyrrhizauralen-sis fisch（also known as licorice ) . It is known to have the anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer ability, but the mechanism on inhibition of leukemia has not yet evaluated. In this study, we treat the HL60 cells with 18α-Glycyrrhetinic acid（18-GAC） to find out if there is any inhibition in HL60 cells and the mechanism when dealing with 18α-Glycyrrhetinic acid. The results show that 18α-Glycyrrhetinic acid induces the HL60 apoptosis mainly through the activation of caspase family （caspase-3, -8, -9 ) , and more datas from western blot indicate the level of mitochondria-related-apoptotic proteins, AIF and Endo G, are released from mitochondria and affect the downstream protein caspase family in term to trigger the apoptosis. The immunostain （confocal）appears that cytochrome-c and AIF are increasing and entering the nucleus after treating with 18GAC in time doses. The discovery of 18GAC in the inhibition of HL60 is potential enough to be developed as a candidate treatment on patients.
