ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of single traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) herb extracts on hepatoma and normal fibroblast cells using high-throughput screening in order to obtain extracts with specific anti-hepatoma effect. METHODS 242 commonly used TCM herbs were extracted by petroleum ether,ethanol and water,respectively. The total number of TCM extracts was 554. The cyto?toxicity of samples was evaluated by MTT in human hepatoma cells Bel7402 and mice normal fibroblasts NIH3T3. RESULTS 7.4%of the total extracts had an inhibitory effect greater than 50%for Bel7402,but 14.8% for fibroblasts NIH3T3 cells. Extracts with an inhibitory effect above 50% on both Bel7402 and NIH3T3 cells accounted for 4.4%of the total extracts. Our results showed that the sample DF173 had preferable cytotoxicity effect on hepatoma carcinoma cells in a good dose-effect relationship. DF173 is an ethanol extract from Stephania tetrandra,which is a commonly used herb in TCM. The cytotoxic IC50 of DF173 against Bel7402 was 8.27 mg·L-1,and 19.48 mg·L-1 on NIH3T3. CONCLUSION The components of TCM herbs are highly complicated. The combination of tumor cells with normal fibroblast cells to evaluate the cytotoxicity effect during anti-tumor drug screening will contribute much to the discovery of TCM drugs with high anti-tumor efficiency and lower toxicity.