Hypoxia enhances antitumor activity of dichloroacetate.

UNLABELLED: It is known that glycolysis contributes to the survival of tumor cells by providing them with energetic and plastic substrates. Dichloroacetate (DCA) as inhibitor of kinase pyruvate dehydrogenase shifts balance of energy metabolism of tumor cells from aerobic glycolysis towards oxidative phosphorylation. The aim of the study was to investigate cytostatic/cytotoxic effect of DCA on glioma C6 cells at the conditions of different oxygenation of the cell incubation medium. MATERIALS AND METHODS: DCA action on glioma C6 cells was investigated upon the conditions of normoxia, hypoxia (1% of oxygen) and hyperoxia (30% and 95% of oxygen) in vitro. The number and viability of tumor cells were assessed using trypan blue dye-exclusion test. Apoptosis was determined using dye Hoechst 33258. Lactate production by tumor cells was determined by enzymatic method using lactate dehydrogenase. Cell cycle distribution was studied using flow cytometry. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) content was evaluated using 2´,7´-dichlorofluorescein diacetate. RESULTS: By the data of in vitro cytotoxicity, upon hypoxia IC50 value of DCA was three times lower (p < 0.05) than that upon normoxic conditions (18.2 ± 3.9 mM vs. 51.2 ± 8.1 mM). Hypoxia itself enhanced the ROS production in glioma cells by 113.5% (p < 0.05) that correlated with increase of apoptosis by 292% (p < 0.05). In hypoxic glioma C6 cells DCA did not significantly influence the ROS production, but decreased hypoxia-induced apoptosis by 3.5-6.5 times (p < 0.05) and significantly increased cell death rates via necrosis (p < 0.05). In contrast to hypoxia, upon the conditions of hyperoxia IC50 values for DCA did not differ from the corre-sponding values upon the normoxia conditions and at 30% and 95%oxygen content were equal to 35.8 ± 7.2 mM and 42.3 ± 5.1 mM respectively. CONCLUSION: According to the obtained results, hypoxia enhances cytostatic/cytotoxic effects of DCA in glioma C6 cells via high level of DCA-induced necrosis of tumor cells and hypoxia-induced ROS hyperproduction.

Dynamics of changes of antioxidant system indexes during the growth of two Lewis lung carcinoma variants.

AIM: To study an intensity of prooxidant processes and activity of antioxidant enzymes in tumor tissue of two Lewis lung carcinoma variants (LLC and LLC/R9) differing by their proliferative, metastatic, and angiogenic potential (LLC/R9 as compared to LLC is characterized by lower metastatic activity, higher proliferative and angiogenic potential). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The in vitro study was carried out using cultured LLC and LLC/R9 cell lines, and in vivo on 50 female С57/BL6 mice. The indexes of prooxidant processes and activity of antioxidant enzymes have been studied using the methods of experimental oncology, optical spectroscopy, fluorescent spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance, statistical analysis. RESULTS: There has been determined the coherence of results on 1.5 fold higher (p < 0.01) level of spontaneous generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by LLC cells in vitro compared to LLC/R9 cells, and twice (p < 0.05) higher content of secondary products of lipid peroxidation at 14(th) and 17(th) day of tumor growth in LLC compared to that in LLC/R9. It has been shown that deficiency of nutrient substrates determines an increase (p < 0.01) of ROS production in LLC/R9 cells what is in congruence with the data on accumulation of nitrosyl complexes of heme iron in mitochondria of LLC/R9 during tumor growth. Activity of superoxide dismutase during tumor growth has altered in unmonotonous way: starting from 14(th) day of growth it sharply increased by 147% (17(th) day, LLC) and 217% (20(th) day, LLC/R9), and then decreased to the level registered at 14(th) day. Progressive decrease of activity of glutathione peroxidase (GP) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) during LLC growth has been accompanied with the decrease of the level of reduced glutathione (GSH) by 70% (p < 0.05). In the case of LLC/R9 the decrease of GP activity at initial stages of tumor growth correlated with significant increase of GSH level in the tumor--by 250% (p < 0.01). It has been shown that in LLC/R9 tumors (unlike to LLC), GSH utilization is mostly provided by GST, its significantly higher activity has been detected in LLC/R9 tumors compared to LLC. CONCLUSION: We have revealed a number of peculiarities of antioxidant system functioning in LLC and LLC/R9 tumors and have shown a relation between an activity of antioxidant system and some biological properties of studied tumor variants.