ABSTRACT
AIM:To investigate the effects of celecoxib on viability , apoptosis and autophagy in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines HL-60 and HL-60A.METHODS:The HL-60 cells and HL-60A cells were cultured with vari-ous concentrations (0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100μmol/L) of celecoxib.The inhibitory effect of celecoxib on the cell viabil-ity was evaluated by MTT assay .Apoptosis was analyzed by Annexin-V/PI staining.Apoptosis-related and autophagy-relat-ed proteins were determined by Western blot .RESULTS:IC50 of celecoxib were 49.4 μmol/L, 32.0 μmol/L and 25.1μmol/L for HL-60 cells treated with celecoxib for 24 h, 48 h and 72 h, respectively.For HL-60A cells, the corresponding IC50 were 69.1 μmol/L, 42.5 μmol/L and 29.6 μmol/L, respectively.The results of flow cytometry analysis showed the proportions of Annexin-Ⅴ+PI-, Annexin-Ⅴ+PI+and Annexin-Ⅴ-PI+cells were increased in the HL-60 cells, and those of Annexin-Ⅴ+PI-and Annexin-Ⅴ+PI+cells were increased in the HL-60A cells treated with celecoxib for 24 h. After treated with celecoxib , the induction of apoptosis was observed , the apoptosis-related proteins cleaved caspase-3 and cleaved PARP were upregulated , the autophagy-related proteins LC3 II and P62 were both increased , and mTOR, p-mTOR, 4-EBP and p-4-EBP were not changed , indicating that celecoxib inhibited autophagy in the AML cells without the mTOR pathway involvement .CONCLUSION:Celecoxib inhibits the viability of HL-60 cells and HL-60A cells in a time-and dose-dependent manner by its effects of inducing apoptosis and necrosis .Celecoxib inhibits mTOR-independent autoph-agy in AML cells, indicating a possible way of using celecoxib for enhancing the antitumor activity of therapeutic agents to induce cytoprotective autophagy in the AML cells .