Elimination of Cancer Stem-Like “Side Population” Cells in Hepatoma Cell Lines by Chinese Herbal Mixture “Tien-Hsien Liquid”
Figure 7
THL decreased the number of sphere and suppressed the tumorigenicity of Huh7 SP cells. (a) The size and number of spheres formed by Huh7 SP cells were decreased after treatment with THL. Representative photos (upper) and the number of Huh7 SP spheres (lower) after treatment for 48 h with vehicle and THL, respectively. Scale bar, 50 μm. (b) The tumorigenicity of Huh7 SP cells was significantly suppressed by pretreatment with 2 mg/mL of THL for 48 h. The photographs of representative tumor mass in each group were shown. On day 0, untreated and THL-pretreated Huh7 SP cells were subcutaneously injected into the NOD/SCID mice. The animals were sacrificed and the sizes of tumor were determined at day 40 after inoculation of Huh7 SP cells. The untreated Huh7 SP cells formed tumor in 5 out of 5 mice, while the THL-treated SP cells formed tumor only in 2 out of 5 mice. *, indicating statistical significance as compared to the untreated control SP cells.
