[Antitumor effect of arsenic trioxide on mice experimental liver cancer].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the antitumor activity of arsenic trioxide on mice experimental liver cancer.


METHODS
Mice bearing HepA solid and ascitic liver tumor were used in vivo experiments.


RESULTS
The tumor-bearing mice were treated with arsenic trioxide 2.0mg/kg/d and 3.5mg/kg/d intravenously for 7 days. After the administration of arsenic trioxide, the growth of solid tumor were obviously inhibited, the inhibitory rate were 31.63% and 42.13% respectively. Under the inspection of transmission electron microscope, some cells of the solid tumor showed the typically morphological characteristics of apoptosis. The apoptotic cells were detected by in situ TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL). The immunohistochemical staining showed that the number of bcl-2 protein positive cells decreased, but the number of bax protein positive cells increased. It also showed that arsenic trioxide could significantly prolong the mean survival time in ascitic-tumor-bearing mice, the prolonging rate of life span was 59.29% and 76.69% respectively. The sub-G1 peaks were observed by flow cytometry on the ascitic specimen and the apoptotic rate were 25.98% and 53.17% respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
arsenic trioxide has obvious antitumor activity on HepA liver tumor-bearing mice. The mechanism of arsenic trioxide may mainly be inducing liver cancer cells to undergo apoptosis, which may be related to downregulate the expression of bcl-2 genes and upregulate the expression of bax genes.
Chen
H
H
PLA oncology center, the 81st Hospital, Nangjing 210002, China.
Qin
S
S
Pan
Q
Q
D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017209:Apoptosis; D000077237:Arsenic Trioxide; D001152:Arsenicals / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D008114:Liver Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D010087:Oxides / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000032:analysis
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D001152:Arsenicals; D010087:Oxides; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D000077237:Arsenic Trioxide