J Korean Surg Soc.  1998 Dec;55(6):800-808.

Camptothecin-nduced Apoptosis in Gastric Cancer Cell Lines: Involvement of Bcl-

• Cha YJ
• Min YD
• Choi CH

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Apoptosis can be induced by various anticancer agents. Resistance to apoptosis may play an important role in tumors refractory to chemotherapy. The authors investigated both the induction of apoptosis by camptothecin, a topoisomerase I inhibitor, in gastric cancer cell lines and the roles of apoptosis-elated gene products.
METHODS
Two gastric cancer cell lines, SNU- and SNU-6, were examined for response to chemotherapeutic agents. Cytotoxicity was determined by a MTT assay. Apoptosis was measured by a DNA fragmentation assay using agarose gel electrophoresis and electron microscopy. Apoptosis-elated gene products were determined by western blot analysis.
RESULTS
The two gastric cancer cell lines (SNU- and SNU-6) showed different sensitivities to camptothecin. Apoptosis of SNU-6 was easily induced by camptothecin, while SNU- was refractory to apoptosis, which was confirmed by DNA fragment assays and electron microscopy. Western blot analysis revealed that the amount of Bcl- in SNU- was 2.68-imes more than that in SNU-6. There were no differences in the levels of Bax, Bcl-L, Bcl-s, and p53 between the two cell lines.
CONCLUSIONS
It is thought that Bcl- may play an important role in blocking cell death due to anticancer drugs in gastric cancer cell lines. Thus, chemosensitivity might be increased if this cell death-locking status were to be modified by new biologic therapies for gastric cancer.

Keyword

Apoptosis; Gastric cancer; Bcl-

MeSH Terms

Antineoplastic Agents
Apoptosis*
Biological Therapy
Blotting, Western
Camptothecin
Cell Death
Cell Line*
DNA
DNA Fragmentation
DNA Topoisomerases, Type I
Drug Therapy
Electrophoresis, Agar Gel
Microscopy, Electron
Stomach Neoplasms*
Antineoplastic Agents
Camptothecin
DNA
DNA Topoisomerases, Type I