Objective:To study the effects of Prunella vulgaris polysaccharide (PVP) on human breast carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs).Method:Cell viability was detected by 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium (MTS) assay.Wound healing experiment and transwell migration assay were used to investigate the anti-migration effects.Flow cytometry was applied to detect cell apoptosis and cell cycle distribution.Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbentassay were used to detect the expression of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in CAFs.Culture SKBr-3 with CAFs conditioned medium (CAFs-CM) to evaluate the indirect function on the proliferation of breast cancer SKBr-3 cells.Results:PVP inhibited the viability of CAFs by inducing apoptosis (P＜0.01) and arresting cell cycle (P＜0.01).It also inhibited the migration of CAFs (P＜0.01).bFGF promoted CAFs proliferation (P＜0.01) and migration (P＜0.01),protected CAFs from apoptosis (P＜0.05) and reduced G0 phase to 49.06％ (P＜0.01).However,these effects of bFGF on CAFs could be abrogated by PVP.Culturing SKBr-3 with CAFs-CM,PVP could inhibit the viability of breast cancer SKBr-3 cells indirectly.Moreover,PVP reduced the mRNA expression (P＜0.01) and protein secretion of bFGF (P＜0.01) in CAFs.Conclusion:PVP could exert an anti-cancer effect on breast CAFs by inhibiting bFGF expression,thus inhibiting the growth of breast cancer SKBr-3 cells indirectly.