Original Article
English
Sasikumar Dhanarasu 1, Manoharan Shanmugam 2 ,Prema Sethuraman 3, Mathi Selvam4
1-Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al-Arab Medical University, Benghazi, Libya. 2-Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India. 3-Department of Siddha Medicine, Faculty of Science, Tamil University, Tamil Nadu, India 4-Department of Biochemistry, Sengamalathayaar educational Trust, (Afflicted to Bharathidasan University), Mannargudi, Tamil Nadu, India.
JMJ 2009,Vol.9, No.1: 25-30
Abstract
Background: Worldwide, oral squamous cell carcinoma is the fifth most common cancer. The cell surface glycoproteins have been shown to play an important role in pinocytosis, differentiation, and carcinogenesis. Terminalia arjuna, a deciduous tree and has been widely used in Indian system of medicine for various diseases. The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of ethanolic Terminalia arjuna bark extract (TaBet) in 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA)-induced hamster buccal pouch carcinogenesis. Methods: The animals were divided into four groups. Group I animals served as control. Groups II and III were painted with 0.5 % DMBA in liquid paraffin on the left buccal pouches. Group III animals were orally administered TaBet starting 1 week before the exposure to the carcinogen and continued on days alternate to DMBA painted, until the animals were sacrificed. Group IV animals were received TaBet alone. All the animals were killed after an experimental period of 14 weeks. Results: The oral administration of TaBet at a dose of 300mg/kg body weight to DMBA-painted animals on days alternate to DMBA painting for 14 weeks significantly prevented the tumour incidence, tumour volume and tumour burden. The altered glycoconjugates in plasma, buccal mucosa tumour tissues and erythrocyte membrane of tumour bearing hamsters were normalized after treated with TaBet. No significant differences were found on TaBet alone treated animals. Conclusion: The protective effects of TaBet on cell surface were found glycoconjugates is probably due to their inhibitory role on glycoprotein synthesis or on the activity of glycosyltransferases.
Keywords: Oral cancer, 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene, Cell surface glycoconjugates, Terminalia arjuna.
Link/DOI: http://www.jmj.org.ly/PDF/Spring2009/25.pdf