Differential gene expression profiles in paclitaxel-induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells.
OBJECTIVE
To elucidate the molecular mechanism of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of MCF-7 cells induced by paclitaxel.


METHODS
Flow cytometry was used to determine the cell cycle changes of MCF-7 cells upon paclitaxel treatment. Gene expression profiles of MCF-7 cells induced by paclitaxel were obtained by using cDNA microarrays containing 9984 genes and expressed sequence tags (ESTs).


RESULTS
Cell cycle analysis showed that 77.8% of cells arrested at G2/M phase and 1.3% of cells underwent apoptosis upon 100 nmol x L(-1) paclitaxel treatment for 24 hours; cDNA microarray results revealed that 27 and 77 genes were differentially expressed upon 12.5 nmol x L(-1) (IC50) and 100 nmol x L(-1) paclitaxel treatment, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Paclitaxel stabilized microtubules and caused G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptotic cell death in a concentration-dependent manner, which is associated with the regulation of selected genes related to microtubule assembly and cytoskeleton, cell cycle regulation, and DNA repair and apoptosis.
Wang
Jin
J
Applied Research Center for Genomics Technology, Department of Biology and Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
He
Fang-ting
FT
Tzang
Chi-hung
CH
Fong
Wang-fan
WF
Xiao
Pei-gen
PG
Han
Rui
R
Yang
Meng-su
MS
D000972:Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000187:drug effects*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004260:DNA Repair / Q000187:drug effects; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D017239:Paclitaxel / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*
D000972:Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; D017239:Paclitaxel