Abstract:

To explore the antitumor activity of corn peptides (CPs) in vitro and in vivo, the morphology of HepG2 cells
and the change of Ca2+ concentration caused by CPs were observed by transmission electron microscopy and laser confocal
microscope, respectively. Meanwhile, H22 tumor-bearing mice were administered with CPs at different dosages by
intraperitoneal injection for 10 d. The anti-tumor activity of CPs was evaluated by tumor weight, thymus index and spleen
index, SOD activity and MDA content in tumor-bearing mice. The results showed that apoptosis characteristics such as
chromatin condensation, accumulation to the nuclear edge and cytoplasmic condensation, and increased intracellular Ca2+
concentration were obvious in HepG2 cells after CP treatments. Moreover, CPs could not only significantly suppress the
growth of H22 tumor in mice (P ＜ 0.05; P ＜ 0.01) and increase spleen index (P ＜ 0.01), but also improve SOD activity in
the serum (P ＜ 0.01), and MDA content (P ＜ 0.01) in the liver of H22-bearing mice. Therefore, corn peptides can be a safe
and effective anticancer, bioactive agent or functional food.

Key words: corn peptides (CPs), antitumor activity, hepatocellular carcinoma, apoptosis, antioxidant activity