ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the role and mechanism of low-dose aspirin concurrent with IFN-a in inducing hepatocellular carcinoma apoptosis in BEL-7402 cells. Methods BEL-7402 cells were cultured and treated with IFN-α,or low dose aspirin or both.MTT and flow cytometry were used to measure the cell proliferation and apoptosis after treatment with a singular drug or the combined regiment.The expressions of the apoptosis-related proteins were detected by Western blot.Results MTT assay revealed after IFN α administration alone or combined with aspirin treatment for 48 h,the proliferation ratio of the IFN-α or aspirin group were 82.45％ ± 1.71％ and 83.22％ ±2.26 ％,compared with the control group.The group which received the combined therapy had a proliferation ratio of 69.84 ％ ±1.18 ％,which was significantly lower than the single groups (P＜0.05).The flow cytometry revealed that the apoptosis ratio in IFN-α group and aspirin group were 14.78 ％ ±1.93％ and 14.00％±0.61％,respectively,while the IFN-α + aspirin group was 21.68％±1.28％,which was also significantly higher than that of the single groups (P＜0.05).Western blot detected that IFN-α and aspirin (1 mmol/L) could promote caspase-3 and caspase-9 protein expressions,and when the two drugs were combined,caspase-3 and caspase-9 were also significantly activated.IFN-α alone or combined with aspirin can promote the expression of pro-apoptotic protein Bax (P＜0.05),while the anti-apoptotic proteins expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl did not change significantly (P＞0.05).Conclusions Low-dose aspirin can cooperate with IFN-α in inhibiting the BEL-7402 cell growth and inducing the cell apoptosis by activating and increasing caspase-3 and caspase-9 levels,which may be related to the increased expression of pro-apoptotic protein Bax.