Regulatory effect of a Chinese medicine prescription Hu Qi Shan on the telomerase activity in hepatic precancerous lesions in rats / 中国比较医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the possible mechanism of action of telomerase in hepatic precancerous lesions, and the regulatory effect of a Chinese medicine prescription HU Qi Shan ( HQS) and its principal drug mistletoe alkali on the telomerase activity in rat liver tissues.Methods Rat model of hepatic precancerous lesions was established by Solt-Farber two-step protocol.The model rats were randomly divided into 5 groups, including the model group, high-dose HQS [8 g/(kg· d)] group, low-dose HQS [4 g/(kg· d)] group, and mistletoe alkali[8 mg/(kg· d)] group.γ-Glutamy-transpeptidase (γ-GT) was analyzed by immunohistochemistry.AFP was detected by immunofluorescence technique.The telomerase activity was detected using a quantitative telomerase detection kit.The expression of NF-κB P65 was detected by immunohistochemistry.The cytoplasmic protein IκB-αwas detected by western blotting.Results After treated with HQS and mistletoe alkali, the areas ofγ-GT-positive foci and number of AFP-positive cells in the liver tissus were significantly decreased than those of the model group ( P<0.05 for both) , the telomerase activity was decreased, the number of NF-κB P65-positive cells was also decreased ( P <0.05 ) , whereas the intracytoplasmic expression of IκB-αproteins was significantly increased ( P <0.05 ) .Conclusions HQS and mistletoe alkali can suppress the telomerase activity.Its possible mechanism may be through inhibition of the over-expressed apoptosis-related genes such as NF-κB P65 and increase the expression of IκB-αdecreasing the telomerase activity.