Effect of Curcumin Combined with Endostatin on Sarcoma Growth Inhibiton and Angiogenesis in Mice

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of curcumin combined with endostatin on growth inhibition and angiogenesis of subcutaneous transplanted tumor in mice. METHODS Seventy-two sarcoma bearing mice were randomly divided into control group, curcumin group, endostatin group and combined treatment group, gave the corresponding drug treatment, respectively, once a day, 14 d continuous dosing, observed the tumor growth. The mice were sacrificed when fluorescence labeling was injected into the tail vein, then the tumor tissue was isolated. The tumor volumes were measured and the tumor inhibition rate, the tumor perfusion vascular fluorescent tags and microvessel density was calculated. RESULTS Each drug treatment group showed obvious inhibition on tumor growth. The tumor inhibition rates of curcumin group, endostatin group and the combined treatment group were 30.93%, 32.33% and 61.66%, respectively. In the control group, curcumin group, endostatin group and the combined treatment group, the average distance of perfusion vessels was (35.29±6.45), (56.42±9.57), (59.15±10.06), (76.98±11.16)µm, and the microvascular density was (60.35±11.22), (45.23±8.76), (44.77±8.03), (29.62± 5.81) ind·(400 Hp)^-1, respectively. There were statistically significant differences between the drug treatment group and the control group(P<0.05), and there were statistically significant differences between the combined treatment group and the single drug treatment group(P<0.01). There was no significant difference between the groups treated alone. CONCLUSION Both curcumin and endostatin can inhibit tumor angiogenesis, decrease microvascular density and inhibit tumor growth when treating subcutaneous sarcoma transplantation in mice. However, the combined treatment has a better effect, which is obviously better than the single drug treatment. It indicates that the combined treatment has a synergistic effect on anti-angiogenic treatment of solid tumors.