Osthole promotes anti-tumor immune responses in tumor-bearing mice with hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Osthole, a natural coumarin derivative, has been shown to have anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory activity. However, the effect of osthole on anti-tumor immune responses in tumor-bearing mice has not yet been reported. In the present study, osthole treatment did not affect the weight and the coefficient of thymus and spleen in tumor-bearing mice with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, osthole administration significantly elevated the proportion and number of the splenic CD8⁺ T cells, the proportion of CD4⁺ T and CD8⁺ T cells in tumor tissues, and the levels of IL-2 and TNF-α in the serum of HCC tumor-bearing mice. Our results suggested that osthole could promote the activation of the tumor-infiltrating CD4⁺ T and CD8⁺ T cells, and elevate the proportion of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ effector T cells. Osthole treatment also significantly decreased the proportion of CD4⁺CD25⁺Foxp3⁺ regulatory T cells in the spleen. Taken together, osthole could enhance the T cell mediated anti-tumor immune responses in the tumor-bearing mice with HCC.

• Immune response
• liver
• Osthole
• T cell
• tumor

Declaration of interest

This work has been supported by the grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (81273268, 81102271), the research funds from Jiangsu Province Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (LZ11151), the project funding from Suzhou city (SWG0904), Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, Qing Lan project of Jiangsu Province, Jiangsu Provincial Innovative Research Team, and Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT1075). The authors declare no conflicts of interests.