Sodium arsenite inhibiting proliferation of hepatoceullar carcinoma cells and expression of promyelocytic leukemia protein / 重庆医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate whether the sodium arsenite inhibiting proliferation of hepatocellar carcinoma(HCC) cells and having a relation with the expression of promyelocytic leukemia (PML) protein .Methods The immunohistochemistry , Western blot analysis ,immunofluorescence assay and quantitative PCR were used to examine the PML gene and protein expression in HCC tissue and cells .Results The immunohis to chemical staining showed that the PML protein was expressed in nucleus of well‐differentiated ,moderately differentiated and poorly differentiated HCC tissues randomly selected from 15 cases of HCC under‐going hepatic resection .Western blot analysis showed that PML protein was expressed at varying levels in all 24 HCC tissue sam‐ples ,HuH7 ,HepG2 ,Hep3B ,SMMC‐7721 and L02 cells .The immunofluorescence assay demonstrated that PML protein grains were found in the nucleis of the HuH7 ,HepG2 ,Hep3B and SMCC‐7721 cells ,in which HuH7 and Hep3B expressed more PML proteins than HepG2 and SMMC‐7721 cells .24 HCC tissue samples ,Hep3B ,HepG2 ,SMCC‐7721 and HuH7 cells all expressed PML gene .Sodium arsenite not only down‐regulated the PML protein expressed in HuH7 and primary HCC cells ,but also inhibited the HCC cell growth of HepG2 ,Hep3B ,HuH7 and SMMC‐7721 ,with the exposure time extension ,the inhibiting effect of sodium arsenite on HCC cells was enhanced .Conclusion Both HCC cell lines and tissues generally express ther PML protein and gene , PML protein may serve as the molecular basis for the direct targeting effects of arsenical agents .