Effect of melatonin on the pancreatic cancer in mice subcutaneous xenograft / 中华胰腺病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the therapeutic effects of melatonin (MT) on human pancreatic cancer in Balb/c nude mice subcutaneous xenograft model. Methods Pancreatic cancer model was established high dose MT(20 mg· kg -1 · d-1 ) , gemcitabine( GEM,50 mg· kg -1 · d-1 ) and high dose MT combination with GEM. Tumor size was measured regularly. The tumor growth curve was drawn. The activity of mice spleen natural killer cell was determined by MTT. Results Compared with the controls [ ( 1. 476 ± 0.075) cm3 ], tumor volumes in low dose MT group[ (0.998 ±0.112)cm3], high dose MT group[ (0.756 ±0.128) cm3], GEM group [ (0. 746 ± 0. 115 ) cm3 ], combination group [ (0. 305 ± 0. 111 ) cm3 ] were significantly decreased ( P <0.01), and the tumor size in high dose MT group was smaller than that in low dose MT group, while the tumor size in combination group was the smallest. The activity of mice spleen natural killer cell was ( 18.07 ± 1.23) %in control group, and they were (44.27 ±3.19)% ,(45.16 ±3.20)% and (30.29 ±2.91)% in low dose MT group, high dose MT group, combination group, which were significantly higher than those in the control group;the activity of natural killer cell in GEM group was ( 14.24 ± 2.70) %, which was significantly lower than that in the control group (P <0.05), but the activity of natural killer cell in combination group was significantly higher than that in the GEM group (P < 0.01 ). Conclusions MT could improve the immune function of mice,inhibit the growth of tumor, and MT combination with GEM may have more potent antitumor effect.