Effects Of Triptolide On PC-3 Cell Xenografts In Nude Mice

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the highest malignant tumors. The incidence not only increases with of age, but also has the obvious difference in different areas, prostate cancer is second only to lung cancer which is the first largest killer in euramerican countries; it is originally a low-incidence area in China, but because of lifestyle westernization, protein and fat intake, the incidence is increasing continually in recent years, which will seriously affect the health of men. At present, the main clinical treatment methods of prostate cancer: chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgical therapy, endocrine therapy etc. Because prostate cancer has not been in my attention, and the diagnosis is not timely, which lead to the discovery of the majority of advanced prostate cancer, while the existing instruments can not fully achieve the therapeutic effect. Therefore, the current priority is to develop new drugs or look to new treatment scheme for prostate cancer. The laboratory has proved triptolide can inhibit proliferation of prostate cancer through MTT, apoptosis methods in vitro; suggesting that triptolide may be a good drug of treating for prostate cancer, In order to further study its anticancer activity, this study will detect triptolide anti-prostate cancer activity in vivo by constructing xenografts in nude mice.Firstly, this study was to culture PC-3 cells, and then inject these cells subcutaneously into 5-wk-old BALB/c nude mice, to construct xenograft mouse model, after solid tumors grew to ~100 mm~3, the mice were S.C. treated with or without triptolide (0.4 mg/kg/d) for 15 days. The results showed that 0.4 mg/kg/d of triptolide could significantly inhibit the solid tumor volume and weight, but had no effect on body weight of nude mice. Besides, side effects were very small, skin color were normal.Secondly, observation of the pathological changes of liver, kidney and tumor with HE staining, the results showed that the structure of liver and kidney did not significantly change after triptolide treatment, indicating that the tumor did not metastasize; while there was a big difference in tumor tissues: observation of diffuse cytoplasm, large nucleus, fewer nuclei in tumor tissues after triptolide treatment, Compared with the control group.Finally, observation of the SENP1 expression changes with immune fluorescence and immunohistochemical, the results showed that SENP1 expression in the control group was significantly higher than triptolide treatment group, indicating that triptolide could inhibit the expression of SENP1 , suggest that triptolide’s mechanism of treating prostate cancer may be related with SENP1 expression .In summary, triptolide can significantly inhibit the growth of prostate cancer in vivo and in vitro, and down regulate the expression of SENP1 protein in prostate cancer, which indicate that triptolide may be a new good drug for prostate cancer.