Antitumor efficacy in vivo

Animal studies were approved by the ethical committee of the Department of Laboratory Animal of Central South University. Animals were housed following IACUC guidelines. As the incidence of HCC in males is higher than in females, we generated orthotopic HCC mice models in male BALB/C nude mice (6 weeks, Hunan Slack Scene of Laboratory Animal Co., Ltd.). Seven days after xenografts generation, mice were randomly divided into four groups: PBS, TPL, TPL@LP, and TPL@MP-LP group.

All formulations were i.v. injected four times with an interval of three days at an equivalent dose of TPL (100 μg/kg). Bioluminescence showing the size of liver tumor was obtained by IVIS. Bodyweight was measured every 2 days. After the treatment, mice were sacrificed and organs and blood samples were collected. Major organs and tumors were subjected to histopathological assessment, serum levels of ALT, AST, Cr, and BUN were measured using assay kits (Huili Biotech, China) according to the manufacturer’s instructions.