• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.23-27
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• 2004

The urushiol-ethanol corpuscle of 320 nM in average particle size was prepared and concentrated by ultra homogenization and centrifugation. The cytotoxic profiles of this particle for use as anti-tumor agent have been evaluated in vitro in cultures of human fibroblasts (MRC-9) and celvical carcinoma cells (CUMC-3). The cytotoxicty assays revealed that the inhibitor effect of $10^{-5}$ M urushiol-ethanol particle on the growth of MRC-9 was hardly detected, while CUMC-3 cells exhibited over 50% of growth inhibition under the same conditions. In addition, a clear multiple-unit ladder pater of apoptotic DNA was observed for the urushiol treated CUMC-3 cells. Thus, the results indicated that urushiol inhibited growth of celvical carcinoma cells by inducing apoptosis, which is a mechanism observed with other typical antitumor agents.