ABSTRACT
Aim To study the effect of 3-pyridin-3-yl-4-[(4-hydroxy-3-methoxy-benzylidene)amino]-5-me-thylsulfanyl-4H-[1,2,4] triazole (LH-37) on induction of differentiation and apoptosis of hepatocarcinoma BEL-7402 cells. Methods BEL-7402 cells were cultured in RPMI 1640 and treated by LH-37 at different doses. The proliferation of the cells and the inhibition effect of LH-37 on the cell proliferation were examined by MTT assay. The reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect the changes of alpha fetoprotein(?-FP)mRNA and albumin(Alb). The concentration of ?-FP in the cells was detected by ELISA assay. Cell morphology was observed by fluorescence microscope techniques. The protein expressions of active caspase-3 in BEL-7402 cells were observed by immunohistochemical staining. Western blot was used to assay caspase-3 and caspase-9. Colorimetric method was used to assay activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT). The apoptotic cells were assayed by flow cytometry (FCM) with annexin V-FITC conjugated and propidium iodide (PI) staining. Results The cell proliferation was inhibited by LH-37 at 10 ?mol?L-1~1 mmol?L-1 in dose dependent manners. After treated with 10 ?mol?L-1 or 1.0 ?mol?L-1 LH-37, the mRNA and protein expression of ?-FP were significantly reduced but mRNA expression of Alb was significantly increased. Treatment of BEL-7402 cells with different LH-37 concentrations for 48 hours increased the percentage of active caspase-3 positive cells and protein expression of caspase-3 and caspase-9. More apoptosis features of cells were observed in LH-37 ( 100 ?mol?L-1) treatment groups than in control group. LH-37 markedly promoted the viability of SOD and decreased CAT in BEL-7402 cells. Counclusion LH-37 might inhibit proliferation and induce differentiation and apoptosis of human hepatocarcinoma BEL-7402 cells, which might be related to the cytotoxicity of the intracellular hydrogen peroxide (H2O2).