Abstract: To study the effects of SPG on the proliferation and apoptosis of mice hepatocarcinoma 22 cells. METHODS: Different concentrations of SPG were cultured with hepatocarcinoma 22(H22) cells, MTT assay was used to analyze the cell proliferation. The H22-bearing mice were randomly divided into SPG high, medium, low dose groups (100, 50, 10 mg/kg), tumor control group and the cyclophosphamide group. Mice in exprimental groups were given daily by gavage with different doses of SPG for 10 days, the control group was given nomal saline and mice in cycliphosphamide group were given 20 mg/kg cyclophosphamide by injection every other day. All the mice were sacrificed 24 hours later after the last administration, the levels of the Bcl-2 and Bax protein expression were measured by immunohistochemistry method. RESULTS: The proliferation activity of tumor cells in high-dose SPG group(0.545±0.002) was significantly higher than tumor control group (0.404±0.008)(P<0.05). The expression levels of Bcl-2 and Bax protein in high-dose SPG group were 16.78% and 38.1%, respectively, and those of the tumor control group were 65.16% and 4.68%, respectively. The differences between two groups were significant (P＜0.05). CONCLUSION: SPG could inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis of H22 hepatocarcinoma cells effectively.

Key words: seaweed pigment glycoprotein, H22 hepatocarcinoma cells, proliferation, apoptosis