Experimental study on differentiation of human hepatocarcinoma cells induced by zhengganfang drug serum in vitro / 中国中西医结合杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the effect of Zhengganfang (ZGF) drug serum in inducing differentiation of Bel-7402 human hepatocarcinoma cell (HHC) and its influence of the telomerase activity.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Rats were fed with ZGF decoction to prepare the drug-serum of ZGF, and the drug-serum was used for Bel-7402 HHC culture. Serum of normal rat, was taken as negative control and retinoic acid (RA) as the positive control. Cell proliferation was detected by MTT colorimetric assay, nucleocytoplasm ratio by image assay, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) by RIA, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (gamma-GT) by dynamic colorimetric assay and telomerase activity of Bel-7402 cell by PCR-ELISA.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Drug-serum of ZGF could inhibit the proliferation of Bel-7402 cell, markedly reduce the nucleocytoplasm ratio and the secretion of AFP, decrease gamma-GT activity, increase ALP activity and suppress the telomerase activity of Bel-7402 cell.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>ZGF can induce the differentiation of Bel-7402 HHC, the main mechanism maybe through the suppression of telomerase activity.</p>