Antitumor Effects of Saffron-Derived Carotenoids in Prostate Cancer Cell Models

Table 1

Antitumor activity of SE, CR, and CCT in PC3 xenografts.

Drug	Dose; mg/Kg	Tumors	Weight of mice; mean ± SD	Tumor weight; (mg ± SD)	PI (ki67 %); mean ± SD	Apoptosis mean ± SD	Vessels; mean ± SD
Saline		8	24.0±2.1	885±321	37.3±4.5	<2	30.0±5.5
SE	300	8	26.1±2.0	720±183	31.4±2.7	<2	29.4±2.0
% versus baseline				18.0%	16%		2%
CR	200	8	23.0±1.7	550±132	26.0±3.0	<2	26.4±1.5
% versus baseline				38.0%	30%		12%
CCT	100	8	19.3±1.5	225±91	15.2±1.2	24.0±3.0	18.3±2.5
% versus baseline				75.0%	59%		30%

Apoptosis was measured as the percentage of tunel positive cells ± SD mesured on five random fields (100X); tumor microvessels were counted in five arbitrary selected fields/tumor and the data are presented as number of CD31+ microvessels/microscopic field for each group (100X). Proliferation index (PI) was determined as percentage by counting on 500 cells at 100X the number of Ki67 stained cells.