Gastric Cancer
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2003. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 15, 2003; 9(4): 670-673
Published online Apr 15, 2003. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v9.i4.670
Effects of astragali radix on the growth of different cancer cell lines
Jiang Lin, Hui-Fang Dong, JJ Oppenheim, OM Howard
Jiang Lin, Department of Gastroenterology, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200021, China
Hui-Fang Dong, JJ Oppenheim, OM Howard, Laboratory of Molecular Immunoregulation, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD 21702, USA
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Correspondence to: Dr. Jiang Lin, Department of Gastroenterology, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 200021, China. lin_jiang@hotmail.com
Telephone: +86-21-53821650-292
Received: April 12, 2002
Revised: April 28, 2002
Accepted: May 8, 2002
Published online: April 15, 2003
Abstract

AIM: To investigate the inhibitory effect of a Chinese herb medicine Astragali radix (AR) on growth of different cancer cell lines.

METHODS: To observe the in vitro effects of AR on tumor cell proliferation by trypan blue exclusion, MTS method and tritium thymidine incorporation assay. Apoptosis was detected by DNA ladder method.

RESULTS: The inhibition rates of AR on the cell respiration of AGS, KATOIII, HT29, MDA231, MEL7 and MEL14 were 68.25%, 62.36%, 22.8%, 27.69%, 2.85% and 5.14% respectively at the concentration of 100 ug/mL; it inhibited AGS DNA synthesis by 87.33% at the concentration of 50 ug/mL. The inhibitory effect on AGS was time-and dose-dependent. AR did not induce apoptosis in AGS cells.

CONCLUSION: AR specifically inhibits gastric cancer cells growth in vitro and the mechanism is mainly cytostatic but not cytotoxic or inducing apoptosis.

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