To elucidate whether the caspase-independent pathway was also involved in the matrine-induced cell death, a pancaspase inhibitor z-VAD-fmk (Calbiochem), which completely inhibited the caspase-dependence of TNF-induced cell death in A cells [28] and TNF/cycloheximide-induced cell death in colon tumour cells [23], was used. This evidence concerns the gene TNF and colonic neoplasm.