Animal model
All animal experiments were approved by the Institutional Animal Care
and Treatment Committee of Sichuan University. Female BALB/c nude mice,
aged 5 weeks, were purchased from HFK Bioscience Co., Ltd (Beijing,
China). The mice were housed under standard conditions. For the
subcutaneous xenograft model, DLD-1 cells (1 x 107cells/mouse) were suspended in PBS and injected into flanks of mice
subcutaneously. When the tumor volume reached
~50mm3, mice were randomly divided
into two groups. The mice were
administered with 0.1 ml vehicle
(10% ricinus oil, 5% DMSO, 10% ethanol, 75% physiologic saline) or
Ziyuglycoside II (50 mg/kg/d) by gavage. The tumor volumes were measured
every other day and evaluated according to the following formula: tumor
volume(mm3) = (length x width2)/2. 4
weeks post treatment, the mice were euthanized and tumors were
harvested.