Growth-inhibiting effects of taxol on human liver cancer in vitro and in nude mice

AIM To investigate the effects of taxol onSMMC-7721 human hepatoma and itsmechanisms.METHODS In vitro cell growth was assessedby trypan blue exclusion method.Experimentalhepatoma model was established by seedingSMMC-7721 cells subcutaneously into Balb/c(nu/nu)nude mice.In vivo tumor growth wasdetermined by measurement of tumor diameterwith Vernier calipers.The syntheses of DNA,RNA and protein were analyzed by incorporationof ~3H-thymidine,~3H-uridine and ~3H-leucinerespectively.Using light and electronmicroscopes to observe the morphologicalchanges of cells including mitosis andapoptosis.RESULTS Taxol was effective against SMMC-7721 human hepatoma cell growth in the rangesof 2.5 nmol/L-10 nmol/L with mitotic arrestand apoptosis in vitro.DNA,RNA and proteinsyntheses in cells were also obviouslysuppressed by in vitro treatment of taxol for72 h.Taxol at 2.5 nmol/L reduced ~3H-thymidineuptake to about 34% of the control value(P【0.05).Increasing the dose of taxol to20 nmol/L resulted in a greater decrease in ~3H-thymidine incorporation to 60% of the controlvalue(P【0.01).At a concentration of 20 nmol/L,the ~3H-uridine and ~3H-leucine uptakeswere reduced to 52%(P【0.05)and 63%(P【0.01),respectively.In vivo,taxolsignificantly inhibited SMMC-7721 tumor growthat 10 mg/kg,i.p.,once daily for 10 d.A morethan 90% decrease in tumor volume wasobserved by day 11(P【0.01)similarly withmitotic arrest and cell apoptosis.CONCLUSION Taxol has a marked anticanceractivity in SMMC-7721 human hepatoma both invitro and in nude mice.Its mechanisms might beassociated with mitotic arrest,subsequently,apoptosis of the hepatoma cells.No obvioustoxicity was observed with in vivoadministration of taxoi.

Synthesis of the Biomimetic Polymer: Aliphatic Diamine and RGDS Modified Poly(d,l-lactic acid)

A novel poly（d, /-lactic acid） （PDLLA） based biomimetic polymer was synthesized by grafting maleic anhydride, butanediamine and arg-gly-asp-ser （RGDS） peptides onto the backbone of PDLLA, aiming to overcome the acidity and auto-accelerating degradation of PDLLA during degradation and to improve its biospecificity and biocompatibility. The synthetic copolymer was characterized by FTIR, ^13C NMR and amino acid analyzer （AAA）.

Using a non-radioisotopic, quantitative TRAP-based method detecting telomerase activities in human hepatoma cells

A non-radioisotopic, quantitative TRAP-based telomerase activity assay was established mainly by using SYBR Green-I staining instead of radioisotope. Comparing with conventional radioisotope based method, it was better in reproducibility and accuracy. Using this method, we found telomerase activities were absent in normal human liver cells, while detected in ail of four human hepatoma cell lines (BEL-7404, SMMC-7721, QGY-7903 and HCCM) without significant differences.