Effect of Chinese medicine Weikangning on expression of VEGF and its receptors Flt and KDR in gastric carcinoma cells

AIM: To study effect of traditional Chinese medicine Weikangning (WKN) on the expression of VEGF and its receptors Flt and KDR in gastric carcinoma cells. METHODS: We used different dosage of WKN on rats to prepare serum containing WKN.The gastric carcinoma cells were cultured in the RPMI1640 media with serum containing WKN for 48 hours. The expression of VEGF, Flt-1 and KDR was determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry in gastric cancer cell lines respectively. RESULTS: All gastric cancer cell lines analyzed expressed VEGF Flt-1 and KDR. But the expression of fVEGF (186.82± 0.22, 195.35±0.45, 172.62±0.52), Flt-1 (198.44±0.44, 188.66± 0.46, 197.01±0.91) in cells cultured in serum containing WKN decreased in a dose-dependent manner as compared with control (VEGF162. 78±0.58, Flt: 172.65±0.65)(P <0.05). CONCLUSION: VEGF and its receptors KDR and Flt-1 are expressed widely in gastric carcinoma cells and WKN can inhibit their expression.