Mangosteen, a fruit mainly produced in Southeast Asia, has been used as food and as an antipyretic and for treating skin diseases. The xanthones contained in mangosteen have many physiological activities including melanin suppression and anticancer activities, but little is known about the physiological effects of the most abundant xanthone, α-mangostin (α-MG) on myoblasts. In this study, we applied α-MG to C2C12 cells that had been induced to differentiate using 2% HS, and analyzed the physiological action of α-MS and the underlying mechanism in the context of myogenic differentiation. α-MG increased the survival rate of C2C12 cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Analysis of the morphological changes in the cells showed that α-MG significantly enhanced the myogenic differentiation of C2C12 myoblasts, whereas the mitochondrial number was only slightly affected. Expression analysis of differentiation-related proteins in C2C12 cells revealed that α-MG promoted the expression of MyoD and Myogenin. Thus, the present study revealed that α-MG improves the survival and myogenic differentiation of C2C12 myoblasts.

山竹果是一种主要在东南亚生产的水果，已被用作食品和退烧剂，并用于治疗皮肤疾病。山竹中所含的氧杂蒽酮具有许多生理活性，包括抑制黑色素和抗癌活性，但对最丰富的黄酮，α-芒果苷（α-MG）对成肌细胞的生理作用了解甚少。在这项研究中，我们将α-MG应用于使用2％HS诱导分化的C2C12细胞，并分析了α-MS的生理作用以及在成肌分化中的潜在机制。α-MG以浓度依赖的方式提高了C2C12细胞的存活率。细胞形态变化分析表明，α-MG显着增强了C2C12成肌细胞的成肌分化，而线粒体数量仅受到轻微影响。C2C12细胞中分化相关蛋白的表达分析表明，α-MG促进了MyoD和Myogenin的表达。因此，本研究表明，α-MG可改善C2C12成肌细胞的存活和成肌分化。