Icariin inhibits tumor lung metastasis in vivo.
Because of the anti-metastasis
effect of icariin in vitro , we subsequently established a
pulmonary
metastasis model of 4T1-Luciferase cells in Balb/c mice to evaluate the
anti-metastatic efficacy of icariin in vivo . As shown in Fig. 7A
and B, the bioluminescence representing metastatic tumor cells was
obviously enhanced over time in comparison with the icariin treatment
group. At 15 day after tumor inoculation, the bioluminescence signals of
the mice in the 20 mg/kg treatment
group
(3369±223
p/sec/cm2/sr, P <0.005) and 40 mg/kg
treatment group (5489±358 p/sec/cm2/sr,P <0.001) were significantly lower than that of the
control group (8374±469 p/sec/cm2/sr). In addition,
the number of metastatic nodules at lung sites of the 20 mg/kg treatment
group (34.2±4.1,P <0.005) and 40
mg/kg treatment group (57.5±5.2, P <0.001) were
significantly reduced in comparison with the control group (81.6±6.4)
(Fig. 7C and D). Moreover, collected lung tissues were sectioned and
analyzed by H&E staining to determine the anti-metastatic efficiency of
icariin (Fig. 7E). H&E staining of these tissue sections indicated that
fewer tumor nodules were present in the icariin treatment group compared
with the control group. These results implied that icariin could
effectively inhibit 4T1 tumor pulmonary metastasis.