Experimental Study on the Effect of a Weifufang on Human Gastric Adenocarcinoma Cell Line BGC-823 Xenografts and Gene Expression in Nude Mice.

This study aims at investigating the effect of the Weifufang, an effective prescription for the treatment of gastric cancer developed by the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)/Combination of TCM and Western Medicine Department of the Hunan Cancer Hospital, on gastric cancer xenografts in nude mice and its effect on the gene; it also aims at exploring the possible tumor suppression mechanism. Nude mice with xenografts were treated with different concentrations of the Weifufang for 2 weeks, and changes in tumor volume were observed. The histopathology of the tumor was detected by hematoxylin and eosin staining; gene expression in tumor tissues was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and western blot. After 2 weeks of treatment, tumor inhibition rates in the 5-flourouracil (5-FU) group, and in the Weifufang low-, middle-, and high-dose groups were 30.67%, 19%, 49.52%, and 29.36%, respectively. The IOD of the gene was detected by IHC. The values in the water group, the 5-FU group, and the Weifufang low-, middle-, and high-dose groups were 0.013 ± 0.004, 0.085 ± 0.062, 0.041 ± 0.024, 0.128 ± 0.032, and 0.061 ± 0.052, respectively. Except for the 5-FU group, the differences between the gastric compound middle dose-group and the other groups were statistically significant ( < 0.05). Results of expression detection by western blot: The expression levels in the water group, 5-FU group, and the Weifufang low-, middle-, and high-dose groups were 0.2240 ± 0.0172, 0.4200 ± 0.0228, 0.2760 ± 0.0163, 0.3840 ± 0.0133, and 0.3040 ± 0.0211, respectively. Except for the 5-FU group, differences between the Weifufang middle-dose group and the other groups were statistically significant ( < 0.05). The Weifufang may inhibit the growth of gastric cancer xenografts by upregulating gene expression. The middle-dose group had the best effect.