Effect of quercetin on the in vitro and in vivo growth of mouse hepatoma cells

Abstract

Quercetin has been reported to have tumor growth inhibition effect. We have examined the in vitro and in vivo effects of quercetin on the growth of ML-3 murine hepatoma cells. Our results showed that quercetin dose dependently inhibited the growth of ML-3 cells. Flow cytometric analysis showed that quercetin-treated cells were mainly arrested at G(0)-G(1) phases of the cell cycle. For the in vivo experiment, BALB/c mice were transplanted intrasplenicly with ML-3 hepatoma cells and fed with 2% quercetin in the diet. The survival of tumor-bearing mice and the size of hepatic tumor were recorded at 40 days after implantation of ML-3 cells. Significant increase in survival of tumor-bearing mice was found by quercetin treatment, all mice in the quercetin group survived to the end of the experiment while only 50% of the mice in control group survived. These results suggested that quercetin has potential for hepatoma treatment.