The effect of Fufangkushen injection alone and the combined effect with oxaliplatin for antiproliferative and apoptotic action on human hepatoma cell line SMMC-7721

Objective By observing the effects of Fufangkushen injection and oxaliplatin alone and their combined effects for cell proliferation and apoptosis on human hepatoma cell lines SMMC-7721 in vitro,the effect combination of chemotherapy with traditional medicine to cure hepatocarcinoma is investigated.Methods MTT-test was used to estimate the inhibition of proliferation on SMMC-7721;flow cytometry was applied to analyze the distribution of cell cycle;fluorescence microscope and TUNEL method were employed to observe the cell apoptosis.Results Fufangkushen injection and oxaliplatin could markedly inhibit the cell proliferation,and the effect depended on exposure time and dose( P 0.01);when they worked combinedly,the effect was additive and synergistic,which had statistical significance comparing with Fufangkushen injection and oxaliplatin alone.TUNEL method showed that Fufangkushen injection (25μl/ml),oxaliplatin (1μg/ml),as well as the two combined,could induce the apoptosis of SMMC-7721;the apoptosis index (AI) were 25.2%,16.2% and 36.3% respectively( P 0.05),which were obvious that the combined group significantly excelled the single work.Flow cytometry showed the proportion of cells increased at G 0/G 1 phase while it decreased at S phase,indicating that drugs blocked cells at G 0/G 1 phase.The effect of pair work was clearly superior to the single drug ( P 0.05).Conclusion Fufangkushen injection and oxaliplatin can inhibit the proliferation,induce the apoptosis of SMMC-7721 cell lines,and block the cell cycle at G 0/G 1 phase.It is suggested that when those two drugs combined,a synergistic effect may be gotten for the treatment of liver cancer on the liver cells.