[The effects of ginsenosides Rg3 on the expressions of VEGF and KDR in human lung squamous cancer cells].

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the inhibitive effects of Ginsenosides Rg3 (GS-Rg3) in the process of tumor angiogenesis and the effects on the expressions of VEGF and its receptor KDR in human lung squamous cancer SK-MES-1 cell line. METHODS: Human lung cancer SK-MES-1 cells were cultured in vitro and immunocytochemistry and RT-PCR methods were used to detect the effects of different concentrations of Rg3 on the expressions of VEGF and KDR on SK-MES-1 cells. RESULTS: The immunocytochemistry results showed that the positive rates of VEGF protein in different group of SK-MES-1 cells were 81.33 +/- 9.04, 61.80 +/- 7.98, 43.80 +/- 5.25, 29.77 +/- 8.04, respectively. The positive rates of KDR protein in different group of SK-MES-1 cells were 65.51 +/- 7.45, 51.73 +/- 9.21, 34.87 +/- 6.15, 22.04 +/- 5.11, respectively. There were significant differences between each group. RT-PCR results suggested that with the increase of the concentration of Rg3, VEGF and KDR amplified bands gradually weakened. There were significant differences between each group. CONCLUSION: GS-Rg3 can down-regulate the expressions of KDR and VEGF protein and their mRNA in human lung squamous cancer SK-MES-1 cells. It may be one of the mechanisms in the process of inhibiting tumor angiogenesis.