[Experimental studies of antitumor effect of artesunate on liver cancer].

To observe the inhibiting effect of Artesunate on liver cancer in vitro and in vivo.The mice bearing H22 solid and ascitic liver tumor were applied in vivo experiments. Microculture tetrazolium assay and colony-forming unit assay were applied to test the cytotoxicity to human hepatocarcinoma SMMC-7721 cell line in vitro.The growth of solid tumor were obviously inhibited by Artesunate at the dose of 300 mg.kg-1.d-1 ig for 7 days. The tumor inhibiting rates of Artesunate were 49.1%, 48.7%, 46.6% in 3 experiments respectively. After administration of Artesunate, the survival rate of the mice bearing H22 ascitic liver tumor were increased to 45%. Compared with the control groups, the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.01). In additional, Artesunate can synergize the antitumor activity of 5-fluorouracil. Artesunate showed evident cytotoxicity to human hepatocarcinoma SMMC-7721 cells, the IC50 of Artesunate being 2.07 micrograms.ml-1 in MTT experiment and 2.48 micrograms.ml-1 in colony-forming unit experiment.Artesunate has marked antitumor activity in vitro and in vivo.