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

Table 2

Antitumor activity of SE, CR, and CCT in 22rv1 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	24.3±1.8	1458±481	45.5±6.5	<2	32.7 ± 4.3
SE	300	8	26.1±2.0	890±267	38.7±2.7	<2	26.2±2.7
% versus baseline				39.0%	15%		18%
CR	200	8	23.0±1.7	800±244	32.2±3.3	5.2±2.7	23.2±4.5
% versus baseline				45.1%	27%		29%
CCT	100	8	19.3±1.5	217±85	18.2±1.4	21.5±3.2	18.3±2.5
% versus baseline				85.1%	60%		44%

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.