Aim: To investigate the inhibitory effect of a Chinese herb medicine Astragali radix (AR) on growth of different cancer cell line.
Methods: To observe the in vitro effects of AR on tumor cell proliferation by trypan blue exclusion, MTS method and tritium thymidine incorporation assay. Apoptosis was detected by DNA ladder method.
Results: The inhibition rates of AR on the cell respiration of AGS, KATOIII, HT29, MDA231, MEL7 and MEL14 were 68.25 %, 62.36 %, 22.8 %, 27.69 %, 2.85 % and 5.14 % respectively at the concentration of 100 ug/ml; it inhibited AGS DNA synthesis by 87.33 % at the concentration of 50 ug/ml. The inhibitory effect on AGS was time-and dose-dependent. AR did not induce apoptosis in AGS cells.
Conclusion: AR specifically inhibits gastric cancer cells growth in vitro and the mechanism is mainly cytostatic but not cytotoxic or inducing apoptosis.