RESUMEN
Objective The recurrence and metastasis of malignant tumor could affect the survival of patients. Early detection of cancer cells in peripheral blood and effective therapy promptly are of clinical importance. The present study was to investigate the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) mRNA expression and serum CEA level in blood from patients with colorectal cancer and to evaluate its clinical significance. Methods Peripheral blood samples were collected from 35 eligible patients with colorectal cancer and 9 post operative patients. CEA mRNA was detected by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR) and serum CEA was detected by time resolved fluorometric methods. Results The positive rate of CEA mRNA in blood samples of 35 patients with colorectal cancer was 45.7%, and 2.7% in healthy volunteers. Two of the nine post operative patients (22.2%) showed CEA mRNA positive. The positive rate increases with the pathological staging and showed no significant relation with the malignant extent of cell differentiation. Serum CEA mRNA positive rates in patients with CEA positivity (72.2%) were significantly higher than those in patients with negative CEA mRNA expression (42.3%).Conclusion The expression of CEA mRNA in peripheral blood cells correlates with the pathological staging of colorectal cancer and it could be of potential use to monitor the micrometastases of tumor. Long term follow up is needed to evaluate its clinical significance.
RESUMEN
AIM: To investigate the cellular biological effects of matrine on K562 and K562/Vin cells and discuss the anticancer mechanism of matrine. METHODS: MTT assay was used to detect the IC_ 50 of matrine on these two cell lines and the reversal effect of matrine on K562/Vin cell's resistance to vincristine. In addition, the growth curve of cells was drawed. The p-glycoprotein (P-gp) expression was determined by immunohistochemistry analysis. The morphological changes of cells under light microscopy and the structural changes under transmission electron microscope were observed. RT-PCR assay was used to detect the hTERT-mRNA expression. RESULTS: The IC_ 50 of matrine was 3.4, 4.6 mmol?L -1 for K562 and K562/Vin cells, respectively. Matrine (4.0 mmol?L -1) inhibited the growth of K562, K562/Vin cells, 2.0 mmol?L -1 matrine inhibited expression of P-gp and with 492.4 reversal index. Matrine killed K562 cells by inducing the apoptosis and the same effect on K562/Vin cells was also observed. The hTERT-mRNA expression of K562 cells were also inhibited by matrine. CONCLUSIONS: Matrine enhanced the cytotoxicity of vincristine in K562/Vin cells, induced the apoptosis of K562 and K562/Vin cells, also inhibited the hTERT-mRNA expression in K562 cells. It shows that matrine would be an effective anticancer medicine.