DMF-induced adult hepatocyte apoptosis and its effects on expression of Bcl-2, Bax and Caspase-3 / 中华劳动卫生职业病杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the apoptosis-inducing effect of DMF on the human liver cells (HL-7702) in vitro.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Liver cells were exposed to different concentrations of DMF (0, 50, 100, 150, 200 mmol/L) for 12 hours. Apoptotic rate, the expression of Bax, Bcl-2 and Caspase-3 in liver cells were measured by FCM and western blotting respectively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The increase in apoptotic rate of hepatocytes in concentration-manner was shown after DMF treatment for 12 h. After treatment the expression of Bcl-2 was decreased steadily and lower than the control group (P < 0.01), the expression of Bax showed no significant difference among the groups of different dosage by one-factor analysis of variance (P > 0.05), as the increase of the dosage of DMF. The ratio of Bcl-2/Bax dropped with the dosage of DMF increasing, and the ratio in 200 mmol/L of DMF was significantly lower than that of the control (P < 0.01). The new lands of procaspase-3 in 150, 200 mmol/L were observed, which demonstrated that there was active caspase-3.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>DMF can induce apoptosis of cultured adult normal hepatocytes in vitro, and the mechanism might be related to the decrease of Bcl-2/Bax and the cleavage of Caspase-3.</p>