ABSTRACT
Objective To study the inhibitory effect of berberine on human nasopharyngeal cancer cell line CNE-2 in vivo and in vitro. Methods CNE-2 cell proliferation was measured by MTT assay and cell cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry. Cell morphology was observed with transmission electron microscopy. The cell cycle relative protein was detected by Western blotting. DNA and protein syntheses were assessed by the cellular incorporation of ~ 3 H-TdR and ~ 3 H-Leu, respectively. Anti-tumor activity of berberine in the experimental transplantation tumor CNE-2 was evaluated by relative tumor growth ratio. Results Berberine inhibited CEN-2 cells growth in a time-and dose-dependent manner. MTT Assay showed that the IC_ 50 values of 48 and 72 h were (49.5?5.8) and (13.3?2.0) ?mol/L, respectively. Cell cycle analyses of 50.0 ?mol/L berberine-treated CNE-2 cells by flow cytometry showed the accumulation of cells in the G_2/M phase while 25.0 ?mol/L berberine treatments for 48 h induced apoptosis with the index of (48.9?10.4)%. The inhibition of CNE-2 cell growth by berberine was associated with suppression of cyclin B1, CDK1, and cdc25c proteins. After the treatment of berberine at dose of 30 mg/kg, the median tumor volume was 317.9 mm~3 which was much lower than that in control group (P