2007 Volume 24 Issue 2 Pages 51-58
Maoto, Kampo medicine, has been shown to inhibit the motility of highly metastatic osteosarcoma, FBJ-LL cells. In the present study, maoto was found to suppress the liver-metastasis of FBJ-LL cells and had no effect on the primary tumor growth. The expression pattern of cytokines in the serum from the tumor-bearing mice given maoto approximated that of the serum from normal mice and was different from that in the serum obtained from the tumor-bearing mice given water. Maoto suppressed the activation of matrix metalloproteinases involved in metastatic processes. On the other hand, juzentaihoto, which has been reported to suppress cancer metastasis via activation of the immune system, had no effect on either liver-metastasis of FBJ-LL cells or primary tumor growth. These results suggest that maoto is a candidate for a novel inhibitor of metastasis, and that the inhibition mechanism of metastasis is different from that of juzentaihoto.
