Rui Long1,2,
Fang Yang2,
Jun-rong Du2 
,
Zhong-ming Qian2,
Chen-yuan Wang2,
Chu Chen2
For correspondence:- Jun-rong Du Email: lrzj820@yahoo.com.cn
Received: 18 July 2011 Accepted: 20 March 2012 Published: 15 June 2012
Citation: Long R, Yang F, Du J, Qian Z, Wang C, Chen C. Effects of Ligustilide on Tumor Growth and Immune Function in Institute of Cancer Research Mice. Trop J Pharm Res 2012; 11(3):421-428 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v11i3.11
© 2012 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Purpose: To investigate the immunomodulatory and antitumor activities of ligustilide (LIG) extracted from Angelica sinensis in mice.
Methods: Normal and tumor-bearing Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice were treated p.o. with LIG (5, 20 and 80 mg/kg/day) for 7 days. In normal ICR mice, phagocytosis of peritoneal macrophages and serum hemolysin concentration were assessed by chicken red blood cell ingestion test and quantitative hemolysis of sheep red blood cells assay, respectively. Lymphocyte proliferation was determined by 3-(4,5)-dimethylthiahiazo (-z-y1)-3,5-di-phenytetrazoliumromide (MTT) method. Both cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) and natural killer (NK) cell activities were evaluated by lactate-dehydrogenase-release assay. H22 ascites tumor cells were inoculated subcutaneously into ICR mice, followed by the determination of antitumor activity of LIG in the H22-bearing mice.
Results: LIG significantly increased thymus and spleen index, macrophage phagocytosis, serum hemolysin concentration, spleen lymphocyte proliferation and CTL and NK cell activities in normal ICR mice, but inhibited the growth of transplantable H22 hepatoma. The effect was dose-related but not in a linear fashion. A dose of 20 mg/kg dose was more effective than 5 and 80 mg/kg doses.
Conclusion: These results suggest that LIG at 20 mg/kg has a highly boosted the immune system and tumor inhibition.
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