Based on the above in vitro findings, we next
conducted in vivo experiment to confirm the effect of GA
on cancer cells. 100μL BxPC-3 and PSCs mixed singlecell
suspension (cell proportion 5:1, containing 1×106
cancer cells) was injected to the right limb subcutaneous
of BALb/c nude mice. After one week, mice were
randomly divided into two cohorts, one of which received
vehicle and the other administrated with GA as described
in the Materials and Methods. The tumor volume was
monitored, as shown in Figure 6A, the tumor growth in
GA group was dramatically retarded as compared with
it in Control group. At the end of the experiment, the
average tumor volume and tumor weight of the group
treated with GA was significantly lower compared with
that of the Control group (Figure 6B and 6C). Consist with
in vitro studies, the immunohistochemistry results showed
that the proliferation of cancer cells was inhibited by GA
administration as there was less and weak expression for
PCNA in GA group compared with that in Control group
(Figure 6D). Moreover, the tumor tissues from mice in GA
group exhibited low level of FASN staining compared with
that from mice in Control group (Figure 6D). And this was
confirmed by immunoblotting (Supplementary Figure 2).
FASN expression in the GA-treated group was obviously
decreased compared to the Control group. In addition, the
phosphorylation level of AMPK (P-AMPK) in the GAtreated
group was significantly increased compared to the
Control group. These data showed that GA can suppress
the in vivo tumor growth through activating AMPK
signaling and inhibiting critical members involved in
lipogenesis.