In vivo” and “in vitro” activity of Larrea divaricata Cav. on

DAVICINO ROBERTO; ALONSO MARÍA ROSARIO; ANESINI CLAUDIA

HUMAN EXP. TOXICOL.

SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD

Lugar: UK; Año: 2010

0960-3271

Larrea divaricata is a plant widely used in folk medicine in Argentina. It has been demonstrated that an aqueous extract of L. divaricata possess a biphasic effect on cell proliferation, at low concentrations exerts an stimulatory action and at high concentrations exerts anti-proliferative effects upon the T lymphoma BW 5147, therefore, we propose in this paper to test the effect of the extract “in vitro” and “in vivo” in another T-cell lymphoma named EL-4. It was analyzed “in vitro” cell proliferation, by tritiated thymidine uptake and the effect of the extract on tumors induced in mice analyzing tumor progression and survival. The results showed that the aqueous extract induced the proliferation of tumor cells at all the concentrations studied. The results “in vivo” showed that the aqueous extract stimulated significantly the size of tumors and that untreated mice lived longer than those treated. It is important to note that it should be very careful in the use of plant extracts. Consequently, before using a plant extract specific scientific studies must be undertaken on different models to certificate therapeutic and adverse effects. Moreover, it can be said that L. divaricata has a specific anti-tumor mechanism of action depending of the targets. http://mc.