Inhibitory Effects Of Astragalus Polysaccharide On The Growth Of Cervical Carcinoma Hela Cells

Background and ObjectivesCervical carcinoma is one of the most common malignant tumor of the female reproductive system. Uncontrolled growth of cells is one of the important biological characteristics of malignant tumor. The self-defects of operation and chemotherapy severely limit the efficacy in patients with cervical carcinoma. Therefore, it is of important clinical significance to explore the feasibility of applying traditional Chinese medicine to the treatment of cervical carcinoma. Astragalus is a common nourishing Chinese medicinal plant. It was discovered that Astragalus Polysaccharides (APS) is the major active ingredient of Astragalus, which inhibits the growth of tumor cells in leukemia, gastric cancer, and breast cancer. However, the inhibitory effects of Astragalus Polysaccharide on the growth of cervical carcinoma Hela cells have not been reported yet. The purpose of this study is to investigate the inhibitory effects of Astragalus Polysaccharide on the growth of cervical carcinoma Hela cells and its mechanism, so as to provide scientific basis for the feasibility of APS used in the treatment of cervical carcinoma.Methods1. APS was prepared and then quantitated.2. The growth rate and doubling time of cervical carcinoma Hela cells before and after treated with APS were detected by cell growth curve.3. The change of clone-forming efficiency and the distribution of cell cycle of cervical carcinoma Hela cells before and after treated with APS were analyzed by flow cytometry and flat clone-forming assay, respectively.4. The expressions of growth-related genes (cyclin A, cyclin B, cyclin E and p21) in cervical carcinoma Hela cells before and after treated with APS were investigated by Western blotting assay.Results1. The quantitative result of prepared APS solution was 53.623mg/mL.2. The results of cell growth curve showed that the growth rates of cervical carcinoma Hela cells treated with 100μg/mL,200μg/mL and 400μg/mL of APS were significantly slowed than that in cervical carcinoma Hela cells untreated with APS (P<0.01), and the doubling times of cervical carcinoma Hela cells treated with 100μg/mL,200μxg/mL and 400μg/mL of APS were significantly prolonged than that in cervical carcinoma Hela cells untreated with APS (P<0.01).Combined with cells state, the cervical carcinoma Hela cells treated with 200μg/mL APS for 48h were used as the experimental group, while the cervical carcinoma Hela cells untreated with APS were taken as control group in subsequent experiments.3. The results of flat clone-forming assay indicated that the clone-forming number of cervical carcinoma Hela cells in experimental group was significantly lower than that cervical carcinoma Hela cells in control group (P<0.01), and compared with control group, the volume of clone was smaller in experimental group.4. The data from flow cytometry suggested that compared with cervical carcinoma Hela cells in control group, the G1 phase was blocked, and the proportion of S phase (P<0.01)and G2/M phase cells (P<0.05)were decreased obviously cervical carcinoma Hela cells in experimental group.5. The data from Western blotting displayed that the expressions of cyclin B and cyclin E in cervical carcinoma Hela cells of experimental group were significantly lower than that in cervical carcinoma Hela cells of control group(P<0.01), and the expression of p21 was significantly increased in cervical carcinoma Hela cells of experimental group (,P<0.01), while the expression of cyclin A was no significant difference between experimental group and control group (P>0.05).Conclusions1. APS has strong inhibition effect on the growth of cervical carcinoma Hela cells.2. The increased expression of p21 and the decreased expressions of cyclin B and cyclin E may be involved in the inhibitory effects of APS on the growth of cervical carcinoma Hela cells.