Objective: To investigate the expression of transfected human endostatin (hES) gene in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) and its inhibitory effects on the growth of tumor cells in vivo.
Methods: Lipofectamine-mediated hES gene was transferred into Tca8113 cells, selected with Blasticidin S; The stable transfected cells were inoculated in BALB/c mice, and then the growth of xenografts was observed. The hES and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) protein expression of xenografts was detected by S-P immuno-histochemical assay. We also detected the microvessel density (MVD) of xenografts with Weidern's method and apoptotic index of the tumor cells by flow cytometry (FCM).
Results: The hES protein expression of xenografts in experimental group was significantly higher than that in control group (P < 0.01), while the expression of VEGF protein was on the other way round (P < 0.01). MVD counting of xenografts in experimental group was lower than that in control group (P < 0.01). The mean apoptotic level of the tumor cells in control group was also lower than in experimental group (P < 0.01). In addition, the inhibitory rate to growth of xenografts induced by hES transfection was 78.9%.
Conclusions: hES gene can be transferred into TSCC cells and then induce corresponding protein expression efficiently in xenograft model, resulting in significantly inhibitory effects on the xenografts in vivo.