Immuregan

Experimental study of the killing effects of oxymatrine on human colon cancer cell line SW1116.

Zou J, Ran ZH, Xu Q, Xiao SD.

Shanghai Institute of Digestive Disease, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Second Medical University, Shanghai, China.

OBJECTIVE: To study the killing effects of oxymatrine (OM) on a human colon cancer cell line, SW1116, and evaluate its antineoplastic mechanism. METHODS: Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) analysis, flow cytometry, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and RT-PCR methods were used respectively to determine the killing effects of OM and its influence on cell cycle distribution, telomerase activity and the expressions of hTERT, c-myc, p53 and mad1 in SW1116 cells. RESULTS: Oxymatrine exhibited dose-dependent killing effects on SW1116 cells and induced G1/G0-phase arrest. It suppressed the telomerase activity of the cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. After OM administration, the expression of hTERT in the SW1116 cells decreased, those of p53 and mad1 increased, and the expression of c-myc was unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: Oxymatrine has dose-dependent killing effects on SW1116 cells and its antineoplastic activity might be attributed to inhibition of telomerase activity by means of its effects on hTERT and the upstream regulating genes.

PMID: 15667553 [PubMed - in process]

[Effect of oxymatrine on prolonging the survival time of cardiac tissue allograft in mice and its immunologic mechanisms]


Qin Z, Den H, Zhuang H.

Research Center of Plastic Surgery, 3rd Hospital of Beijing Medical University.

Oxymatrine is an extract from Sophora flavescens Ait. A daily dose of 75 mg/kg or 225 mg/kg of oxymatrine was given to the recipient intramuscularly for 14 days. The survival time of cardiac tissue allograft was prolonged significantly to 12.2 days (at the dose of 75 mg/kg, P less than 0.05) and 15.7 days (at the dose of 225 mg/kg, P less than 0.001) by oxymatrine, while that in the control group was 10.8 days. The effects of oxymatrine on immune-function in BABL/c mice with or without heart allograft were further studied. Experiments showed that in vitro spontaneous proliferation of spleen cells increased markedly on the 10th day after transplantation, while the proliferation response to Con A of spleen cells decreased. The spontaneous proliferation and proliferation responses to Con A or to LPS of spleen cells could be inhibited significantly in normal mice by oxymatrine. The proliferation response to LPS of spleen cells and RPFC was inhibited obviously in transplanted mice by oxymatrine. However, oxymatrine did not affect the proliferation response to Con A of spleen cells, which had been decreased after transplantation. The results suggested that this drug exhibited selective immuno-suppression on function of B cells without obvious effect on T cell function in transplanted mice. This characteristics of the drug seemed beneficial for avoiding side-effect produced by the conventional immuno-suppressive agents.

PMID: 2364472 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]