Published online Apr 15, 2003. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v9.i4.670
Revised: April 28, 2002
Accepted: May 8, 2002
Published online: April 15, 2003
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.