Abstract: Prepared mouse splenic lymphocytes under aseptic conditions, then treated cells with different concentratio of ricin toxin (0,0.3,3,30,300 μg/mL) and detected its viability at different durations(3,6,12,24 h) by MTS method. The result showed that RT had significant toxic effect on lymphocytes and its viaility only 〖JP2〗60% of control cells when treated by RT for 24 h.〖JP〗〖LM〗〖WT〗〖WT5”BZ〗 In order to invest that if the cell death induced by RT according to the apoptotic pathway, we detected series of typical apoptotic character in the experiment, membrane potential detection, Hoechst33258 staining and DNA ladder. All the results illuminated that RT could induce apoptosis of lymphocytes indubitable. And also, this conclusion can provide parts of theories for the toxic action’s further study of ricin.

Key words: splenic lymphocyte; ricin toxin; cell viability; membrane potential; DNA ladder