There are increasing pieces of evidence suggesting that the recurrence of
cancer may result from a small subpopulation of cancer stem cells, which are resistant to the conventional
chemotherapy and
radiotherapy. We investigated the effects of Chinese herbal mixture
Tien-Hsien Liquid (THL) on the
cancer stem-like side population (SP) cells isolated from human
hepatoma cells. After sorting and subsequent culture, the SP cells from Huh7
hepatoma cells appear to have higher clonogenicity and
mRNA expressions of stemness genes such as SMO, ABCG2, CD133, β-
catenin, and Oct-4 than those of non-SP cells. At dose of 2 mg/mL, THL reduced the proportion of SP cells in HepG2, Hep3B, and Huh7 cells from 1.33% to 0.49%, 1.55% to 0.43%, and 1.69% to 0.27%, respectively. The viability and colony formation of Huh7 SP cells were effectively suppressed by THL dose-dependently, accompanied with the inhibition of stemness genes, e.g., ABCG2, CD133, and SMO. The tumorigenicity of THL-treated Huh7 SP cells in NOD/SCID mice was also diminished. Moreover, combination with THL could synergize the effect of
doxorubicin against Huh7 SP cells. Our data indicate that THL may act as a cancer stem cell targeting
therapeutics and be regarded as complementary and integrative medicine in the treatment of
hepatoma.