Abstract: Objective: To study the effect of matrine on tumor growth, inflammatory factors and immune function in Wistar rat with breast cancer. Methods: Sixty female Wistar rats were randomly divided into control group (n=10) and the modeling group of breast cancer cell tumor-bearing rat (n=50), then the rats in modeling group were randomly divided into five groups (n=10):vehicle group, matrine low dose group (50 mg/kg), medium dose group (100 mg/kg), high dose group (200 mg/kg), and lentinan group (200 mg/kg). Except the control group, each rat in the other groups was subcutaneously inoculated 0.4 ml Walker 256 breast cancer cell suspension (5×10⁷ cells/ml) in the right axillary. Each group was treated with corresponding drug by ig administration (10 ml/kg body weight) twice a day for 14 days. After 14 days, the blood sample was collected from ventral aorta, the tumor was removed and weighed to calculate tumor inhibitory rate. The levels of interleukin-2 (IL-2), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-10 (IL-10), transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), CD3⁺, CD4⁺, CD8⁺, IgG, IgM, IgA in peripheral blood were determined. Results: The mean tumor weight of matrine low-dose, medium-dose, high-dose groups and lentinan group were (4.99±0.93) g, (4.52±0.92) g, (4.22±1.18) g and (4.52±0.92) g respectively, which were significantly lower than that in model group. There was no statistical difference on the mean tumor weight among matrine groups and lentinan group (P>0.05). After the drug intervention, the tumor inhibitory rates of matrine low-dose, medium dose, high-dose groups and lentinan group were 24.6%, 31.7%, 36.3%, and 27.9% respectively, there was no statistical difference among the four groups. The levels of IL-2, IFN-γ, CD8+ in vehicle group were lower than those of control group obviously (P<0.01), however, the levels of IL-6, IL-10, TGF-β, CD3⁺, CD4⁺, IgG, IgM, IgA were higher significantly than those of control group (P<0.01). The levels of IL-2, IFN-γ, CD8⁺ in matrine low-dose, medium dose, high-dose groups and lentinan group were higher than those of vehicle group obviously (P<0.01, P<0.05); while the levels of IL-6, IL-10, TGF-β, CD3⁺, CD4⁺, IgG, IgM, IgA were lower than those of model group markedly (P<0.01, P<0.05). The levels of IgM and IgA in matrine low-dose and medium-dose groups were higher than those of lentinan group obviously (P<0.01, P<0.05); the levels of IL-2, IFN-γ and IgA in matrine high-dose group were higher than those of lentinan group obviously (P<0.01, P<0.05); while the levels of IFN-γ in matrine low-dose group were lower than those of lentinan group markedly (P<0.05); the levels of IL-10 and CD4⁺ in matrine high-dose group were lower than those of lentinan group markedly (P<0.01, P<0.05). Conclusion: Matrine has an obvious antitumor action which is related to its ability to enhance cellular and humoral immunity, reduce inflammatory reaction.

Key words: matrine, breast cancer cell tumor-bearing, rats, inflammatory factor, immune function