Chinese medicinal compound delisheng has satisfactory anti-tumor activity, and is associated with up-regulation of endostatin in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 in three-dimensional culture

Table 1 Test sensitivity of delisheng in 3d and 2d cell culture

Concentration (μL/mL)	Inhibition ratio (%)
	3-d	Monolayer	P value
12.5	11.73 ± 11.58	33.81 ± 10.54	0.014
25	20.94 ± 8.29	37.79 ± 9.55	0.018
50	25.45 ± 5.62	46.01 ± 6.32	0.001
100	36.69 ± 5.37	75.65 ± 10.47	< 0.001
200	43.93 ± 7.81	84.62 ± 3.24	< 0.001

Table 2 Test sensitivity of 5-fluorouracil in 3d and 2d cell culture

Concentration (g/L)	Inhibition ratio (%)		P value
	3-d	Monolayer
6.25 × 10-3	18.25 ± 7.85	33.89 ± 9.41	0.021
12.50 × 10-3	17.51 ± 7.28	39.08 ± 7.74	0.002
25.00 × 10-3	18.18 ± 11.34	43.18 ± 5.92	0.002
50.00 × 10-3	17.87 ± 10.93	67.72 ± 2.18	< 0.001
100.00 × 10-3	36.42 ± 10.54	81.17 ± 2.81	< 0.001

Table 3 Test sensitivity of adriamycin in 3d and 2d cell culture

Concentration (g/L)	Inhibition ratio (%)		P value
	3-d	Monolayer
0.15625 × 10-3	11.40 ± 2.71	10.39 ± 5.07	0.705
0.31250 × 10-3	12.17 ± 6.49	21.31 ± 2.85	0.02
0.62500 ×10-3	18.61 ± 9.41	25.69 ± 8.19	0.24
1.25000 × 10-3	29.45 ± 5.26	41.66 ± 6.52	0.012
2.50000 × 10-3	38.09 ± 20.71	84.56 ± 7.97	0.002

Data were reported as means ± SE (n = 5).

Table 4 Endostatin expression of multicellular spheroids with treatment of delisheng, 5-fluorouracil, adriamycin and PBS

Drug	Mean grey value
Delisheng	139.35 ± 7.83
5-fluorouracila	159.23 ± 10.34
Adriamycinc	162.83 ± 3.47
PBSe	148.48 ± 11.06

^aP < 0.05 5-fluorouracil vs delisheng,

^cP < 0.05 adriamycin vs delisheng,

^eP < 0.05 PBS vs delisheng.

Table 5 VEGF expression of multicellular spheroids with treatment of delisheng, 5-fluorouracil, adriamycin and PBS

Drug	Mean grey value
Delisheng	188.00 ± 6.33
5-fluorouracila	189.93 ± 16.58
Adriamycinc	193.44 ± 5.11
PBSe	184.82 ± 13.87

^aP > 0.05 5-fluorouracil vs delisheng,

^cP > 0.05 adriamycin vs delisheng,

^eP > 0.05 PBS vs delisheng.