Effects of Chinese medicine portions of Weibimei on cell cycle regulation and tumor inhibition in nude mice / 中国生化药物杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the effects of Weibimei and its Chinese medicine portions(cortex frangulae, fennel powder, acorus tatarinowii, glycyrrhizae and asparagus) on cell cycle regulation in gastric cancer cells and growth inhibition in gastric cancer Xenografts.Methods Gastric cancer SGC-7901 cells were normally cultured and treated with Weibimei, extractum glycyrrhizae, cortex frangulae, fennel powder, acorus tatarinowii and asparagus.Then, the proliferation of SGC-7901 cells were detected by MTT assay, their effect on SGC-7901 cell cycle were measured by flow cytometry, and the expression of cell cycle related proteins were examined by Western blot.Animal models of SGC-7901 cells xenografts in nude mice were constructed to evaluate the growth inhibition effects of Weibimei and its Chinese medicine portions, and the expression of STAT3,p-STAT3, Cyclin D1, Bcl-2 and Survivin in gastric tumors were detected by immunohistochemical assays.Results Weibimei and its three kinds of Chinese medicine portions, cortex frangulae, fennel and acorus tatarinowii could obviously inhibit the proliferation of SGC-7901 cells, compared to control group, with a statistical significant difference (P<0.05).The cell cycle of SGC-7901 was arrested at G1 phase with cortex frangulae, fennel and acorus tatarinowii treatment, the expression of Cyclin A, B, D, E were decreased significantly (P<0.05).However, no significant effects was found in glycyrrhizae or asparagus group.Xenografts tumor sizes in Weibimei, cortex frangulae, fennel or acorus tatarinowi groups were much smaller than that in saline group or Triple Therapy group (three-kinds-drugs-combination for the treatment of gastric ulcer) (P<0.05).Xenografts experiments showed that the tumor growth in nude mice in Weibimei, cortex frangulae, fennel or acorus tatarinowi groups were significantly smaller than that in control group or in Triple Therapy Group (P<0.05), and phosphorylated STAT3, and STAT3 signaling targeted genes, including Bcl-2, Cyclin D1 and Survivin were all significantly down-regulated by immunostaining.Conclusion Weibimei and its Chinese medicine portions including cortex frangulae, fennel and acorus tatarinowii can could significantly inhibit the growth of SGC-7901 cells proliferation and arrested the cell cycle of G1 phase in vitro, and inhibit gastric cancer xenografts in nude mice in vivo.