Effects of Formononetin on PTEN/AKT Signaling Pathway and Angiogenesis of Transplanted Tumor in Nude Mice with Breast Cancer Cells

To investigate the effect of formononetin on phosphatase and tensin homology deleted on chromosome ten/protein kinase B signaling pathway and angiogenesis of transplanted tumor in nude mice with breast cancer cells. Nude mice with breast cancer cell transplanted tumors were established and randomly divided into control group, low (0.1 mg/g) and medium (0.2 mg/g) doses of formononetin, high (0.4 mg/g) and taxol (10 & mu;g/g) groups, after grouping treatment, the transplanted tumor volumes of nude mice in each group were measured; terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling staining was used to detect the apoptosis of transplanted tumor cells; the angiogenesis (proportion of cluster of differentiation 31 positive cells) of transplanted tumors was detected by immunohistochemical staining; serum vascular endothelial growth factor levels in nude mice were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; the expressions of vascular endothelial growth factor and phosphatase and tensin homology deleted on chromosome ten/protein kinase B pathway related proteins in transplanted tumors were detected by Western blot assay. Compared to the control group, the volumes of transplanted tumors, the proportion of cluster of differentiation 31 positive cells, serum vascular endothelial growth factor levels, vascular endothelial growth factor protein expression, and phosphorylated-protein kinase B/protein kinase B of nude mice were decreased, while the proportion of apoptotic cells and phosphatase and tensin homology deleted on chromosome ten protein expression were increased in a dose-dependent manner (p<0.05) in low, medium and high doses of formononetin or taxol groups; however, there were no differences in all indexes between taxol group and high dose group of formononetin (p>0.05). Formononetin up-regulates phosphatase and tensin homology deleted on chromosome ten expression, decreases protein kinase B phosphorylation and inhibits transplanted tumor growth and angiogenesis of transplanted tumor in nude mice with breast cancer cells.