Experimental Studies On Metallothionein And Copper Anti-tumor Effect Relationship Between

Copper is an essential trace element playing important role in both the physiological and pathological processes. In traditional Chinese medicine, it has been used in treatment for many kinds of diseases including cancer for thousands years. Copper was considered as an agent for "eliminating evilness but not harmful to the body vitality". In recent years, more and more attention has been paid on its anticancer effect, mechanism and toxicity. With the discovery of metallothionein (MT), more progress has been made in understanding the relationship between the effect of Cu and MT, but not yet known clearly about the key mechanism of the coexistence in the definite anticancer effect of copper and its less even none invasion to the normal tissue , especially to the liver.In this paper , the anticancer effect of copper was studied from different levels. The production , distribution of metallothionein induced by copper and the biological sense of the coexistence of copper and MT were studied.1. Anticancer effect of copper.There was a certain degree of anticancer effect for solid tumor by oral administration in dosage of 150 mg/kg of copper acetate, the average inhibitory rate of tumor growth was about 55% , which was stable and well repeated. Meanwhile, the mice were in such satisfactory condition as good liver and kidney function and normal WBC count. When copper acetate in 100mg/kg injected intraperitoneously to ascites HepA mice, though the prolonging rate of survival time attained to 89.98 %, but the conditions of the mice were so poor that the body weight reduced markedly and hairs looked sparsely. Strong growth inhibition and direct killing for HepA H₂₂...