In vivo and in vitro anti-tumour response of selenium-protein polysaccharide extracted from rich selenium Agaricus blazei

In this study, the anti-tumour activity of selenium-protein polysaccharide (SPP), a water extract of the rich selenium Agaricus blazei, was tested both in vivo and in vitro. The results of in vivo experiments show that SPP at doses of 50 and 100 mg/kg inhibits proliferation of implanted Sarcoma 180 by 22 and 37.69%, respectively, and promotes lymphocyte transformation and natural killer (NK) cells activity in tumour bearing mice. During the in vitro experiment, we treated the tumour and non-tumour bearing mice with SPP, and prepared serum treated with SPP (Serum_SPP). The results show that Serum_SPP, whether from tumour or non-tumour bearing mice, significantly inhibits K562 cells proliferation and induces their apoptosis, and also significantly increases caspase-3 activity of K562 cells. However, the difference in anti-tumour activity of Serum_SPP between tumour and non-tumour bearing mice is significantly different (p<0.01). The results, according to the studies both in vivo and in vitro, imply that SPP extracted from rich selenium A. blazei can inhibit growth of implanted Sarcoma 180 and promote lymphocyte transformation and NK cells activity in vivo. Additionally, Serum_SPP can inhibit proliferation and cause apoptotic morphological changes and the fragmentation of internucleosomal DNA, and increase caspase-3 activity of K562 cells in vitro, which indicates that apoptosis of K562 cells induced by Serum_SPP may be related to up-regulation of caspase-3.