Abstract
Objective
To study the combined antitumor effect and possible mechanisms of ursolic acid with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) on human esophageal carcinoma cell Eca-109 in vitro.
Methods
Eca-109 cells were treated with ursolic acid (10–50 μmol/L) and/or 5-fluorouracil (48.0–768.8 μmol/L) for 48 h in vitro. And then cell proliferation was determined by MTT assay. Cell cycle and apoptosis rate were analyzed by flow cytometry (FCM). The morphological changes of apoptosis were observed by fluorescent microscopy. At last the expression of P27kip1, bcl-2 and bax were detected by western blot.
Results
In comparison with single agent treatment, the combination of ursolic acid and 5-fluorouracil produced greater efficacy in growth inhibition, cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase, and apoptosis induction (P<0.05). Western blot analysis showed that the combination use of ursolic acid and 5-fluorouracil suppressed the expression of bcl-2 and increased the expressions of bax and P27kip1.
Conclusion
Ursolic acid combined with 5-fluorouracil showed adjuvant antiproliferative effects on human esophageal carcinoma cell Eca-109 in vitro, which mainly due to the induction of cell cycle arrest as well as apoptosis.
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This work was supported by the grants from the Natural science Foundation Project of Chongqing Sci & Tech Committee (CSCT, 2006BB5297).
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Chen, Gq., Yao, Zw., Zheng, Wp. et al. Combined antitumor effect of ursolic acid and 5-fluorouracil on human esophageal carcinoma cell Eca-109 in vitro . Chin. J. Cancer Res. 22, 62–67 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11670-010-0062-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11670-010-0062-3