Inhibitory effect of Dendrobium officinale polysaccharide on human gastric cancer cell xenografts in nude mice
Dendrobium officinale is a member of Orchidales Dendrobium plants, and is one of the precious traditional Chinese medicines in China (Li et al., 2008). It has the effect of nourishing Yin, clearing heat, reinforcing stomach fluid, and moistening lung (Lin et al., 2010). A variety of active ingredients have been isolated from Dendrobium officinale, including alkaloids, polysaccharides, sesquiterpenes, phenanthrene quinones, bibenzyls, fluorenones, steroids, phenols and volatile oils (Lv et al., 2013). The polysaccharide is the main component of Dendrobium officinale, which has immune-regulating (Liu et al., 2011), anti-oxidant (Luo et al., 2016), anti-tumor (Bao, 2008), antibacterial (Lei, 2011) and anti-hypoglycemic activity (Chen et al., 2003). Gastric cancer is one of the common malignant tumors, with high mortality (Leylabadlo et al., 2016). With the change of modern lifestyle, the incidence of gastric cancer is increasing year by year, which poses a great threat to people’s health. The occurrence and development of gastric cancer is a process of carcinogenesis caused by multiple factors, multiple stages and polygenic variations (Eom et al., 2012). The single resection can be applied for gastric cancer, but the cure is only limited for early-stage gastric cancer without any metastasis. For early-stage gastric cancer with metastasis or advanced-stage gastric cancer, the medical treatment occupies an important position (Lepage et al., 2010). SGC-7901 cell line is one kind of the most common gastric cancer cells in human. The propagation speed of SGC-7901 cells directly determines the development of gastric cancer (Sun & Wang, 2003). At present, the application of Dendrobium officinale polysaccharide (DOPA) to treatment of SGC-7901 cells is rarely reported. This study investigated the inhibitory effect of DOPA on growth of SGC-7901 cell xenografts in nude mice, and analyzed the possible mechanism. The objective was to provide an experimental basis to further application of DOPA to treatment of human gastric cancer.