Figure 1

In vitro / ex vivo growth inhibition of highly-metastatic human breast cancer cell lines by berbamine (BER). (A) The chemical structure of berbamine. Growth inhibition of highly-metastatic human breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB-231 (B) and MDA-MB-435S (C) cells after treatment for 24 hour (h), 48 h and 72 h with 1-80 μM BER (B, left panel) or the sera (B, right panel) taken from rats (n = 6 for each group at different time points) at 0 h (as the control group), 1 h, 2 h and 3 h after oral administration of BER in rats, respectively. The cell growth was determined by MTT assay. (D) In vitro effects of BER and its synergistic anticancer agents on growth of MDA-MB-231 cells. The cells were treated for 48 h with the indicated concentrations of BER (B, 1- 40 μM), celecoxib (S, 10-80 μM), trichostatin A (T, 12.5-100 μg/L), carmofur (KA, 40 mg/L), navelbine (NA, 5 nM), rosiglitazone (Ro1, 1 μM), lovastatin (Lo1, 1 μM), Ly294002 (LY, 12.5 and 25 μM), and Bay (5 μM) in the absence or presence of the synergistic anticancer agents S (20 and 40 μM), T (25 and 50 μg/L), KA (40 mg/L), LY (12.5 and 25 μM). The data are presented as the mean ± SD (Bar) for each group (n = 6). The figures (B, C and D) are the representative of 3 similar experiments performed. Comparison was made by two-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni post hoc test to establish whether significant differences existed between the groups. *: P < 0.05, ***, P < 0.001. All statistical tests were two-sided. Values with different letters (a-i) differ significantly (P < 0.05). i/s, f/s and h/s represent the significant synergistic effects (P < 0.05) compared with the treatment with its individual compound alone. (i/s, P < 0.0001, two-way ANOVA; f/s, P < 0.001, two-way ANOVA; h/s, P < 0.001, two-way ANOVA).