Previous studies have shown that crude polysaccharides from the Lycium barbarum fruit could inhibit cancer cell growth, but the major effective constituents are yet to be identified. In this study, we compared the effects of L. barbarum fruit polysaccharide fractions on the growth of hepatoma cells (SMMC-7721 and HepG2), cervical cancer cells (HeLa), gastric carcinoma cells (SGC-7901), and human breast cancer cells (MCF-7). LBGP-I-3 showed stronger inhibitory effects on MCF-7 cells (cell viability of 48.96%) than SMMC-7721 (cell viability of 78.91%) and HeLa cells (cell viability of 55.94%), and had no effect on HepG2 and SGC-7901 cells. In addition, LBGP-I-3 had no inhibitory effect on normal liver cells (L02, cell viability of 115.58%). Investigation of the underlying mechanism suggested that LBGP-I-3 inhibited the growth of cancer cells by cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. LBGP-I-3 arrested the cell cycle at the G0/G1 phase, altered mitochondrial function, activated oxidative stress, and regulated the MAPK signaling pathway to induce apoptosis. Thus, LBGP-I-3 may be a potential functional food ingredient for the prevention of cancer without toxicity to normal cells in vitro. These results could help further elucidate the structure–activity relationship of L. barbarum fruit polysaccharides and functional food development.

先前的研究表明，枸杞果实中的粗多糖可以抑制癌细胞的生长，但主要的有效成分尚未确定。在这项研究中，我们比较了L. barbarum的影响果多糖成分对肝癌细胞（SMMC-7721和HepG2），宫颈癌细胞（HeLa），胃癌细胞（SGC-7901）和人乳腺癌细胞（MCF-7）生长的影响。LBGP-1-3对MCF-7细胞（细胞活力为48.96％）的抑制作用强于SMMC-7721（细胞活力为78.91％）和HeLa细胞（细胞活力为55.94％），对HepG2和SGC-7901细胞。另外，LBGP-1-3对正常肝细胞没有抑制作用（L02，细胞活力为115.58％）。对潜在机制的研究表明，LBGP-I-3通过细胞周期停滞和凋亡来抑制癌细胞的生长。LBGP-I-3使细胞周期停滞在G0 / G1期，改变了线粒体功能，激活了氧化应激，并调节了MAPK信号通路来诱导细胞凋亡。从而，LBGP-1-3可能是潜在的功能性食品成分，可在体外对正常细胞无毒性的情况下预防癌症。这些结果可能有助于进一步阐明两者的结构-活性关系。枸杞果实多糖和功能食品的开发。