Basic Research
Copyright ©2008 The WJG Press and Baishideng. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 14, 2008; 14(10): 1504-1509
Published online Mar 14, 2008. doi: 10.3748/wjg.14.1504
Apoptosis of human pancreatic cancer cells induced by Triptolide
Guo-Xiong Zhou, Xiao-Ling Ding, Jie-Fei Huang, Hong Zhang, Sheng-Bao Wu, Jian-Ping Cheng, Qun Wei
Guo-Xiong Zhou, Xiao-Ling Ding, Jie-Fei Huang, Hong Zhang, Sheng-Bao Wu, Jian-Ping Cheng, Qun Wei, Department of Gastroenterology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Zhou GX, Ding XL contributed equally to this work; Zhou GX, Ding XL, Huang JF, Zhang H and Wu SB designed research; Ding XL, Zhang H, Wu SB, Cheng JP and Wei Q performed research; Zhou GX, Ding XL and Zhang H analyzed data; Zhou GX and Ding XL wrote the paper.
Correspondence to: Guo-Xiong Zhou, Department of Gastro-enterology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China. zhouguoxiong@medmail.com.cn
Telephone: +86-513-85052079
Fax: +86-513-85519820
Received: October 8, 2007
Revised: November 13, 2007
Published online: March 14, 2008
Abstract

AIM: To investigate apoptosis in human pancreatic cancer cells induced by Triptolide (TL), and the relationship between this apoptosis and expression of caspase-3’ bcl-2 and bax.

METHODS: Human pancreatic cancer cell line SW1990 was cultured in DMEM media for this study. MTT assay was used to determine the cell growth inhibitory rate in vitro. Flow cytometry and TUNEL assay were used to detect the apoptosis of human pancreatic cancer cells before and after TL treatment. RT-PCR was used to detect the expression of apoptosis-associated gene caspase-3’ bcl-2 and bax.

RESULTS: TL inhibited the growth of human pancreatic cancer cells in a dose-and time-dependent manner. TL induced human pancreatic cancer cells to undergo apoptosis with typically apoptotic characteristics. TUNEL assay showed that after the treatment of human pancreatic cancer cells with 40 ng/mL TL for 12 h and 24 h, the apoptotic rates of human pancreatic cancer cells increased significantly. RT-PCR demonstrated that caspase-3 and bax were significantly up-regulated in SW1990 cells treated with TL while bcl-2 mRNA was not.

CONCLUSION: TL is able to induce the apoptosis in human pancreatic cancer cells. This apoptosis may be mediated by up-regulating the expression of apoptosis-associated caspase-3 and bax gene.

Keywords: Triptolide; Pancreatic cancer; Apoptosis; Bcl-2; Caspase-3; Bax