Experiment of inhibitive effect of artemether on colorectal cancer growth and angiogenesis in BALB/c mice

OBJECTIVE: To explore the inhibitive effect of artemether on colorectal cancer growth and angiogenesis in tumor bearing BALB/c mice. METHODS: Forty-eight (24 male and 24 female) BALB/c mice which were subcutaneous planted with CT-26 colorectal cell (2×106 mL-1) were divided resourcefully into 6 groups, each group was 8 mice. They were low dose group with artemether of 33.3 mg/(kg·d) as oral; middle dose group 50 mg/(kg·d)oral; high dose group 66.6 mg/(kg·d) oral; middle dose plus ferralia 50 mg/(kg·d)+1.5 mg/(kg·d) oral;positive control group with DDP 5 mg/(kg·d) ip and blank control group with normal saline as oral. The treatment started on day 1 and continued until day 15 and the mice were sacrificed 24 hours after last time. The volume of tumor was calculated following Steel’s formula: V (mm3)=0.5 ab2. The micro-vascular dense (MVD) was observed and countered under the microscopy by immunohistory chemistry.RESULTS:The inhibitive rates of artemether were 42.3%,51.4% and 52.0%,respectively,and had a significant difference inhibitive effects on colorectal cancer growth (P=0.007,P=0.006,P=0.024 respectively).The combination ferralia and Artemether synergenic the inhibitive effect on tumor bearing mice.The micro-vascular count value in different therapy groups respectively were 13±6,31±4,38±5 and 11±9,respectively and the normal saline control group was 49±9.The microvascular denses (MVD) in different therapy groups were significant lower than that in the normal saline control group (P0.05,P0.01,respectively).CONCLUSIONS:Artemether has inhibitive effect on colorectal cancer growth in mice;The combination of ferralia and artemether has the synergenic inhibition effect.Meanwhile,artemether has also inhibitive effect on colorectal cancer angiogenesis in mice at the same of dosages.