title: Anticancer drug resistance of HeLa cells transfected with rat glutathione S-transferase pi gene.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To establish a cytologic expressing system of rat glutathione S-transferase pi (GST-pi) cDNA for detecting the resistance of HeLa cells to anticancer drugs.
  
  
  METHODS
  The assessment was made with various anticancer drugs (adriamycin, mitomycin, cisplatinum and vincristine) that showed different cytotoxicities in transfectant HeLa cells with pSV-GT containing rat GST-pi cDNA (HeLa/pSV-GT) or control pSV-neo (HeLa/pSV-neo). Expression levels of GST-pi mRNA in HeLa/pSV-GT and HeLa/pSV-neo were measured by in situ hybridization using Digoxin-labelled cDNA probe.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HeLa/pSV-GT expressed significantly high degree of GST-pi mRNA, whereas both HeLa/pSV-neo and HeLa cells had very low expression. Cytotoxicities of HeLa/pSV-GT and HeLa/pSV-neo with 4 anticancer drugs were measured by MTT assay. Drug concentrations for yielding 50% inhibition (IC50) in HeLa/pSV-GT by adriamycin, mitomycin and cisplatinum were 70.13 microg/mL, 10.95 microg/mL and 16.52 microg/mL, respectively. In contrast, IC50 in HeLa/pSV-neo was 10.34 microg/mL, 7.48 microg/mL and 13.70 microg/mL, respectively. The cytotoxicities of vincristine on both HeLa/pSV-GT and HeLa/pSV-neo were not significantly different.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that HeLa/pSV-GT containing rat GST-pi cDNA is resistant to some anticancer drugs due to overexpression of GST-pi. Also, HeLa/pSV-GT cell line could serve as a useful cytogenetic model for further research.
authors.affiliation: The National Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100005, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zuo
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Zhao-Hui
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Li-Mei
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Ju
authors.forename: Fu-De
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Fang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004351:Drug Resistance; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; D005982:Glutathione Transferase / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D051381:Rats; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D005982:Glutathione Transferase