In the present study, 13 clinical cases of canine mammary adenocarcinoma were evaluated in order to understand the effect of Tarantula cubensis extract (TCE) on tumor tissue. Punch biopsies were taken from the tumors before treatment with TCE. Subcutaneous injections of TCE were administered three times at weekly intervals (3 mL per dog). Between days 7 and 10 after the third injection, the tumor masses were extirpated by complete unilateral mastectomy. Pre- and post-treatment tumor tissues were immunohistochemically assessed. The expression of B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) was found to be higher in pre-treatment compared to post-treatment tissues (p < 0.01) whereas Ki-67 expression was lower in post-treatment tissues (p < 0.01). No significant differences in fibroblast growth factor or vascular endothelial growth factor expression were observed between pre- and post-treatment tissues (p > 0.05). The apoptotic index was determined to be low before treatment and increased during treatment. These results suggest that TCE may be effective for controlling the local growth of canine mammary adenocarcinoma by regulating apoptosis.
Adenocarcinoma/*drug therapy/physiopathology ; Animals ; Apoptosis/drug effects ; Dog Diseases/*drug therapy/physiopathology ; Dogs ; Female ; Mammary Neoplasms, Animal/*drug therapy/physiopathology ; Mammary Neoplasms, Experimental/*drug therapy/physiopathology ; Mitosis/drug effects ; Spiders/*chemistry

OBJECTIVETo study and evaluate the effect of Sangu Decoction (SGD, ) on the bone destruction due to mammary cancer metastasis.

METHODSMetastasis rat mammary tumor-1 cells were transplanted into the left hind limb tibia of SD rats to establish the bone metastasis of the mammary cancer model. The modeled rats were treated with SGD for observing its effect on rats' pain behavior, including 50% paw withdrawal threshold (50% PWT) after von Frey fiber stimulation, burden difference of bilateral feet, and thermal withdrawal latency (TWL), with zoledronic acid as the positive control. Moreover, the damage in the tibia sample of rats was scored by an iconographic method, and the bone mineral density (BMD) as well as the bone mineral content (BMC) were estimated.

RESULTSThe model established showed characteristics of mixed metastasis, revealing the manifestations of tumor development, bone destruction, cancerous pain, etc. In the SGD-treated group, 50% PWT was prolonged (8.13 ± 4.76 vs. 2.30 ± 2.19), and TWL was longer (3.48 ± 0.62 s vs. 2.89 ± 0.26 s) than those in the control group, respectively (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Iconographic scoring also showed improvement of BMD (0.134 ± 0.009 vs. 0.120 ± 0.007, P<0.01) and an elevating trend of BMC in the SGD-treated group.

CONCLUSIONSGD could effectively alleviate the cancerous pain of bone metastasis and mitigate the metastasis that cause osteolytic destruction of bone.

Animals ; Bone Density ; drug effects ; Bone Neoplasms ; drug therapy ; physiopathology ; secondary ; Bone and Bones ; drug effects ; pathology ; physiopathology ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; pharmacology ; therapeutic use ; Female ; Mammary Neoplasms, Animal ; pathology ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Reaction Time ; drug effects