[A preliminary study of the anti-cancer effect of tanshinone on hepatic carcinoma and its mechanism of action in mice].

In this paper is reported the study of the anti-cancer effect of Tanshinone and its mechanism of action in vivo. The proliferating kinetics of hepatic carcinoma H22 cells was measured in mice by in vivo bromodeoxyuridine (Brdu) labeling and immunohistochemical staining of the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). The tumor inhibitory rates of Tanshinone were 50.0%, 38.5% and 40.6% in 3 experiments, respectively. Compared with those of the DMSO-treated control groups, the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.01). The Brdu labeling and PCNA positive cells were 51.8 +/- 7.9 and 451.1 +/- 26.1 respectively, which were significantly lower than those of the controls (84.4 +/- 24.3, 694.8 +/- 117.1) (P < 0.01). The results once more confirm that tanshinone has anti-cancer activity and suggest that the mechanism of action might be associated with inhibition of DNA synthesis, PCNA expression and DNA polymerase activity of tumor cells.