Anticancer effects of deproteinized asparagus polysaccharide on hepatocellular carcinoma in vitro and in vivo

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most aggressive malignancies in the world whose chemoprevention became increasingly important in HCC treatment. Although the anticancer effects of asparagus constituents have been investigated in several cancers, its effects on hepatocellular carcinoma have not been fully studied. In this study, we investigated the anticancer effects of the deproteinized asparagus polysaccharide on the hepatocellular carcinoma cells using the in vitro and in vivo experimental model. Our data showed that deproteinized asparagus polysaccharide might act as an effective inhibitor on cell growth in vitro and in vivo and exert potent selective cytotoxicity against human hepatocellular carcinoma Hep3B and HepG2 cells. Further study showed that it could potently induce cell apoptosis and G2/M cell cycle arrest in the more sensitive Hep3B and HepG2 cell lines. Moreover, deproteinized asparagus polysaccharide potentiated the effects of mitomycin both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistic studies revealed that deproteinized asparagus polysaccharide might exert its activity through an apoptosis-associated pathway by modulating the expression of Bax, Bcl-2, and caspase-3. In conclusion, deproteinized asparagus polysaccharide exhibited significant anticancer activity against hepatocellular carcinoma cells and could sensitize the tumoricidal effects of mitomycin, indicating that it is a potential therapeutic agent (or chemosensitizer) for liver cancer therapy.

Asparagus Polysaccharide and Gum with Hepatic Artery Embolization Induces Tumor Growth and Inhibits Angiogenesis in an Orthotopic Hepatocellular Carcinoma Model

“…Many evidence suggest that the anti-tumor mechanism of Asparagus polysaccharides may be associated with promoting apoptosis (Xiang et al, 2014). Apoptosis refers to the activation of cell suicide mechanism is triggered as a kind of inherent pyknotic cells as the main morphological changes of programmed cell death.…”

“…Asparagus polysaccharide treated tumors (B-C) has the least necrosis which may be induced by apoptosis (Xiang et al, 2014). While Asparagus gum induced the most necrosis which may be due to the embolization and apoptosis (D-E).…”

“…Asparagus polysaccharide was made as reported (Xiang et al, 2014). Asparagus polysaccharide was dissolved in iodine fluoride alcohol as a solvent to prepare the medicine asparagus gum.…”

“…Asparagus polysaccharide, an extract from Asparagus, is a polysaccharide protein which has been proved to be the main active ingredient of Asparagus in the respect of anti-cancer effects and immunity-enhancing activities. Many studies reported that the Asparagus polysaccharide can inhibit tumor cell proliferation and prolong survival of tumor-bearing animals (Yu Bin et al, 2010;Zhao et al, 2012;Xiang et al, 2014). Clinically, it has been used to treat many malignancies, such as breast cancer, malignant lymphoma, leukemia and lung cancer.…”

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“…Asparagus is a great source of prebiotics. Asparagus has been shown to promote friendly bacteria in the gut and has been linked to the prevention of certain cancers [28].…”