Antitumor and immunomodulatory activity of Astragalus membranaceus polysaccharides in H22 tumor-bearing mice

In the present study, we investigated the antitumor and immunomodulatory activity of Astragalus membranaceus polysaccharide (AMP) on liver cancer using murine H22 hepatocarcinoma model. The results showed that AMP (100 and 400 mg/kg) could effectively inhibit the solid tumor growth of H22 hepatocarcinoma transplanted in BALB/c mice. Besides, the body weight, spleen/thymus indexes and phagocytotic function of macrophage of H22 tumor bearing mice were also improved in two AMP treated groups. Furthermore, AMP treatment could promote the secretion of IL-2, IL-12 and TNF-alpha and decreased IL-10 level in serum. Taken together, these findings indicate that AMP has antitumor activity in vivo at least partly via improving immune responses of host organism, and seems to be safe and effective for the use of anti-tumor therapy. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.