BAX and leukemia: Additional studies also showed that oridonin could inhibit cell growth and induce apoptosis in cervical cancer HeLa, gallbladder cancer SGC996 and NOZ, and leukemia K562 cells via alteration of the Bcl-2/Bax ratio with decreased expression of Bcl-2 and increased expression of Bax in mitochondria (Zhang et al., 2004; Liu et al., 2005; Bao et al., 2014).