ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of BAX gene deletion on the sensitivity of BCR-ABL-induced B-ALL cells of mice to imatinib and the related mechanism. METHODS: The target gene-knock out (BAX-/-) mice were used as bone marrow cell donors; the wild type bone marrow cells(B6BM) and BAX-/- bone marrow cells(B6BM-BAX-/-) of mice were transfected by using reverse transcription virus, then the BCR-ABL transfected B6BM cells and B6BM-BAX-/- cells were treated with imatinib at different concentration (0,0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 µmol/L) for 48 hours. The number of viable cells was detected by trypan blue, the flow cytometry was used to detect the cell apoptosis, the Western blot was used to detect the changes of BAX, Caspase expression. RESULTS: In BCR-ABL transfected bone marrow cells treated with imatinib, the numbers of viable cells of BAX deletion group was significantly higher than that of wild type groups with statristcal difference(P<0.05), and effect- and dose-dependency(r=-0.9533 for BAX deletion group, and r=-0.9812 for wild type group). The flow cytometry showed that the cell apoptosis in BAX deletion group signifincantly decreased, compared with wild type group(P<0.05). The Western blot showed that the expression of apoptotic protein Caspase 3 in BAX deletion group was significantly higher than that in wild type group(P<0.05). CONCLUSION: BAX deletion can reduce the sensitivity of BCR-ABL-induced B-ALL cells to imatinib.
