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Volume 28, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 1386-2073
  • E-ISSN: 1875-5402

Abstract

Background

Silybin, a major flavonoid extracted from the seeds of milk thistle, has a strong hepatoprotective but weak anti-hepatoma activity. Screening another natural ingredient and combining it with silybin is expected to improve the anti-hepatoma efficacy of silybin.

Objective

The objective of this study was to investigate the synergistic anti-hepatoma effect of resveratrol and silybin on HepG2 cells and H22 tumor-bearing mice in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and , respectively.

Methods

Cell viability, scratch wound, clone formation, cell apoptosis, cell cycle, and western blot analysis of HepG2 cells were used to investigate the synergistic effects of the combination resveratrol with silybin. Growth rates, tumor weights, organ indexes, and histological pathological examination in H22 tumor-bearing mice were used to investigate the synergistic effects .

Results

The combination of resveratrol (50 µg/mL) and silybin (100 µg/mL) significantly suppressed cell viability, whose combination index (CI) was 1.63 (>1.15), indicating the best synergism. The combination exhibited the synergistic effect in blocking the migration and proliferative capacity of HepG2 cells in the measurement . In particular, resveratrol enhanced the upregulation of Bcl-2 expression and the downregulation of Bax expression with a concurrent increase in the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. The combination of resveratrol (50 mg/kg) and silybin (100 mg/kg) reduced the tumor weight, inhibited the growth rate, increased the organ indexes, and destroyed the tumor tissue morphology in H22 tumor-bearing mice.

Conclusion

Resveratrol was found to exhibit synergistic anti-cancer effects with silybin on HepG2 cells and H22 tumor-bearing mice.

© 2025 Bentham Science Publishers
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2024-01-10
2025-01-19

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/content/journals/cchts/10.2174/0113862073263408231101105647
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Resveratrol Enhances Anticancer Effects of Silybin on HepG2 Cells and H22 Tumor-bearing Mice via Inducing G2/M Phase Arrest and Increasing Bax/Bcl-2 Ratio
Comb Chem High Throughput Screen 28, 89 (2025); https://doi.org/10.2174/0113862073263408231101105647
/content/journals/cchts/10.2174/0113862073263408231101105647
/content/journals/cchts/10.2174/0113862073263408231101105647
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  • Article Type:     Research Article
Keyword(s): anti-tumor; combination index (CI); hepatocellular carcinoma; phytotherapy; Resveratrol; silybin

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