J Korean Soc Coloproctol.  2003 Apr;19(2):67-73.

Relationship between Expression of Thy- midylate Synthase mRNA and Resistance of Colon and Gastric Cancer Cells to 5-FU

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Chosun University, Gwangju, Korea. kjkim@mail.chosun.ac.kr
  • 2Department of Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine, Chosun University, Gwangju, Korea.
  • 3Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, Chosun University, Gwangju, Korea.

Abstract

PURPOSE: Thymidylate synthase (TS) is an important target for chemotherapeutic drugs such as 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Overexpression of TS has been linked to chemotherapy resistance, but their relationship was not completely understood. We compared the expression level of TS with resistance of colon and gastric cancer cell lines to 5-FU.
METHODS
Expression of TS mRNA was determined by RT-PCR assay in 9 colon and 10 gastric cancer cell lines. Cytotoxicity of 5-FU was determined by MTT assay. Apoptosis was determined using propidium iodide staining by flow cytometry.
RESULTS
All cancer cell lines tested showed differential levels of TS mRNA expression. Colon cancer cell Colo320 (the highest expression of TS) was more resistant to 5-FU than SNU-C1 (the lowest expression of TS) was. Flow cytometry also showed that 5-FU induced apoptosis less in Colo320 than SNU-C1. But in gastric cancer cells SNU-1 (the highest expression of TS) was not resistant to 5-FU than SNU-16 (the lowest expression of TS) was.
CONCLUSIONS
The high level of expression of TS was correlated with resistance of colon cancer cells to 5-FU, but not in gastric cancer cells. Thus, TS may be differently involved in the resistance of gastric and colon cancer cells to 5-FU, which may depend on the origin of cancer cells and status of apoptosis related genes.

Keyword

5-fluorouracil; Thymidylate synthase; Resistance; Gastric cancer cells; Colon cancer cells

MeSH Terms

Apoptosis
Cell Line
Colon*
Colonic Neoplasms
Drug Therapy
Flow Cytometry
Fluorouracil*
Propidium
RNA, Messenger*
Stomach Neoplasms*
Thymidylate Synthase
Fluorouracil
Propidium
RNA, Messenger
Thymidylate Synthase
Full Text Links
  • JKSC
Actions
Cited
CITED
export Copy
Close
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
Similar articles
Copyright © 2024 by Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors. All rights reserved.     E-mail: koreamed@kamje.or.kr