Kazuki Nakamura (1), Yu Yamaguchi (1), Satomi Kagota (1), Young Mi Kwon
(1), Kazumasa Shinozuka (1) and Masaru Kunitomo (1,2)
(1) Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and (2)
Interdisciplinary Research Institute for Biosciences, Mukogawa Women's University,
11-68, Koshien Kyuban-cho, Nishinomiya 663-8179, Japan
Abstract: We investigated the effect of the water extract of Cordyceps
sinensis (WECS) on liver metastasis of Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) and B16
melanoma (B16) cells in mice. C57BL/6 mice were given a s.c. injection of
LLC and B16 cells and sacrificed 20 and 26 days after tumor inoculation,
respectively. WECS was daily administered p.o. to the mice in a dose of
100 mg/kg body weight (wt.) in the experiment of LLC and in a dose of 100
or 200 mg/kg body wt. in the experiment of B16 from one week before tumor
inoculation to one day before the date of sacrifice. The tumor cells increased
in the thigh in LLC-inoculated mice and in the footpad in B16-inoculated
mice. The relative liver wt. of the tumor-inoculated mice significantly
increased as compared to that of the normal mice due to the tumor metastasis,
as verified by the hematoxylin-eosin staining pathological study in the
LLC experiment. The relative liver wt. of the WECS-administered mice significantly
decreased relative to that of the control mice in both the LLC and B16 experiments.
WECS showed a strong cytotoxicity against LLC and B16 cells, while cordycepin
(3'-deoxyadenosine), an active component of WECS, was not cytotoxic against
these cells. These findings suggest that WECS has an anti-metastatic activity
that is probably due to components other than cordycepin.
Keywords: Water extract of Cordyceps sinensis (WECS), Spontaneous liver
metastasis, Mouse Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cell, Mouse B16 melanoma (B16)
cell, Cordycepin (3'-deoxyadenosine)