Barley Grass Juice Attenuates Hydrodynamic Transfection-Induced HCC Initiation in Mice

Abstract

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) grass has been recognized as a functional food with a wide spectrum of health-promoting properties. Supplementation with barley grass has the potential to prevent chronic diseases, such as cancer. Here, we investigated whether barley grass could protect against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Our data showed that administration of barley grass juice attenuates tumor development in a hydrodynamic gene delivery-induced model of HCC. The expression levels of the immune cell markers Ptprc and Adgre1 were upregulated in the barley grass juice-treated and normal groups, compared to those in the vehicle group in the HCC model. Immune cells (CD45+, F4/80+, and CLEC4F + iNOS + cells) infiltration in the liver increased following barley grass juice administration. Our results indicate that barley grass could be beneficial for HCC alleviation, partly by regulating immune cell infiltration. The ingredients of barley grass affect immune cell infiltration in HCC, and the detailed mechanism requires further study.

Acknowledgments

We thank all the study participants for their participation and perseverance. We also thank Xueju Wang from Department of Pathology, China-Japan Union Hospital for the helping of tumor burden estimation.

Authors’ Contributions

CHL and RJL designed the study; JL, WZ, SWZ, XL, and LHZ performed the experiments; HWX, WZ, and HMG analyzed the data; JL and MLC wrote the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (Grant No. 19ZR1417000), Shanghai Sailing Program (19YF1430500), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81901959), Shanghai Sailing Program (19YF1426600), China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA (CARS-05-01A-02), and SAAS Program for Excellent Research Team ((2022)018).