Effects of Chinese herbal medicine in combination with mitomycin C on gastric cancer cells

Biomarker Research

Che-Chang Kuo¹  Jian-Jung Chen²  James Y Tsai³  Chung-Tsen Hsueh³ 

[1] Department of Chinese Medicine, St. Joseph Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. School of Chinese Medicine for Post-Baccalaureate, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

[2] Department of Chinese Medicine, Taichung Tzu Chi General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

[3] Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California, USA

关键词: Apoptosis;    Cytotoxicity;    Mitomycin C;    Chinese herbal medicine;    Gastric cancer;   

Others  :  1084157
DOI  :  10.1186/s40364-014-0026-8

 received in 2014-11-18, accepted in 2014-12-11,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) is frequently used by cancer patients in Chinese community. It remains largely unknown about the interaction between CHM and chemotherapeutic agents. Herein, we evaluated 3 commonly used CHM formulas for cancer patients: Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi-Tang (BZYQT), Bao-Yuan-Tang (BYT), and Ju-Yuan-Jian (JYJ). We examined the effects of these 3 formulas in human gastric cancer cells MKN-74, in terms of cytotoxicity and apoptosis induction when used alone or in combination with mitomycin C (MMC). Cytotoxicity was determined by tetrazolium dye colorimetric assay. The 10% inhibitory concentration of CHM was used in this study. Cells were first exposed to CHM or phosphate buffered saline (as control) for 48 h. Then MMC at final concentration of 0.25 μg/ml was added to media for another 24-h. Among these 3 CHM formulas, BZYQT showed the most pronounced effect in augmenting MMC-induced cytotoxicity. The viability of MKN-74 cells was decreased to 43.1% when treated with BZYQT and MMC, compared to 94.9% with MMC alone. We subsequently examined apoptosis induction by quantitative florescent microscopy and single-strand DNA enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and found BZYQT did not enhance MMC-induced apoptosis. Our findings indicate BZYQT in combination with MMC induces cell death in gastric cancer cells via non-apoptotic mechanism. Our results provide a rationale for further investigation in the interaction of CHM and anti-cancer treatment.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Kuo et al.; licensee Biomed Central.

【 图 表 】

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