Combined treatment of in vivo pancreatic cancer with oligoelements Se, Zn, Mn plus lachesis muta and gemcitabine

MOHAMAD N; CRESCENTI E; CROCI M; MARTIN G; CRICCO G; GUTIÉRREZ A; MEDINA V; GARBARINO G; RIVERA E; BERGOC R

Pinamar Argentina

Congreso; 10th Congress-Panamerican Association for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology XLI Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Bioquímica Biología Molecular XX Reunión anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Neuroquímica; 2005

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Bioquímica y Biología Molecular

We have previously reported the use of oligoelements Se, Zn, Mn plus Lachesis muta (O-LM) as antitumor drug in pancreatic cancer, both in vivo and in vitro. Besides, gemcitabine (G) have been adopted in recent years in pancreatic carcinoma. In the present work we have investigated the in vivo use of G, O-LM and G+O-LM, in pancretic carcinoma xenografts, which were developed in nude mice, by sc inoculation of Panc-1 cells derived from a human ductal pancretic adenocarcinoma. When tumor mean diameter reached 0.6 cm, mice were treated with G, O-LM or both. Relative tumor size at 30 days in O-LM and control (C) groups was significantly greater than in G and combined groups. Haematoxylin-eosin (H.E.) stained sections were examined for histopathological changes. The combined treatment showed a significantly minor number of mitosis per field (40x) G, O-LM or C. Sections were also examined for apoptosis, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and vascular endothelial cell factor (VEGF) expressing cell. Apoptosis in G and combined groups was greater than O-LM and C groups and the opposite for PCNA. VEGF was expressed almost uniformly in all groups. In conclusion, G and O-LM in vivo combined treatment seemed to be effective in pancretic carcinoma, presumibly due to an increased apoptosis and a decreased proliferation. poster