Figure 5: Simvastatin combined with tamoxifen inhibits the growth of tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer cells in vivo.
Xenograft tumors were formed by injecting 2.5 × 106 MCF7 or MCF7 TamR cells into the fat pads of SCID/Beige mice. (A) Tumors in the non-treated group are shown. (B,C) The xenograft tumors that formed from the MCF7 cells were significantly larger in size (B) and weight (C) than the tumors that formed from MCF7 TamR cells. (D,E,F) Six days after injection, the SCID/Beige mice were gavaged daily with placebo (CON) and tamoxifen (5 mg/kg) alone (TAM), simvastatin (30 mg/kg) alone (SVA) or tamoxifen (5 mg/kg) combined with simvastatin(30 mg/kg) (TAM + SVA) for 3 weeks. The xenograft size (D,E) and weight (F) are shown. (G) Immunochemical staining was performed to assess the expression of MCM7 and RB in the CON, TAM, SVA and TAM + SVA groups; the bars represent 75 μm. n = 8, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001.
