Comparative study on apoptosis of ovarian carcinoma cell line SKOV3 and COC1 induced by arsenic trioxide

    GAO Shangª²Feng1, LIU Tingª²Yan1, SHU Huiª²Min1, LI Lei1, HAO Zhiª²Ming2

    1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2Department of Gastroenterology, First Hospital, Xi¬ðan Jiaotong University, Xi¬ðan 710061, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To compare the apoptosis of ovarian carcinoma cell line SKOV3 and COC1 induced by arsenic trioxide (As2O3). METHODS: The ovarian carcinoma cell lines SKOV3 and COC1 were induced by As2O3 at different concentrations and the cells were harvested at the designated time points. Methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay was used to detect the growth inhibitory rate of the cells and the flow cytometry (FCM) was used to detect apoptosis percentage and phase distribution of cell cycles. After exposure to different concentrations of As2O3 solution, the apoptosis morphologic features of SKOV3 and COC1 were observed by TdTª²mediatedª²dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL). RESULTS: The growth of SKOV3 and COC1 cells was inhibited by different concentrations of As2O3 solution. The inhibitory effect increased with time and concentration. 15.0 ¦Ìmol/L(10 ppc)As2O3 had the best inhibitory effect on SKOV3 cell line while under the dose of 15.0 ¦Ìmol/L(10 ppc)As2O3, no significant difference was found in the inhibition rate of SKOV3 cell between groups. As2O3 had a weaker inhibitory effect on the growth of SKOV3 cells than on COC1 cells. After 48 h of exposure to 1.5 ¦Ìmol/L As2O3, COC1 cell line presented some morphologic changes of apoptosis. The number of apoptosis cells increased with the time. But the similar results could be observed in SKOV3 cell line at least after 48 h of exposure to 6.0 ¦Ìmol/L As2O3. After treatment with 15.0 ¦Ìmol/L or 6.0 ¦Ìmol/L As2O3, the percentage of SKOV3 cells in G2/M phase declined and the percentage of cells in G1 phase increased with the time. The similar results were observed in COC1 cell line after exposure to 3.0 ¦Ìmol/L or 1.5 ¦Ìmol/L As2O3. CONCLUSION: As2O3 can induce apoptosis in ovarian carcinoma cell lines SKOV3 and COC1. COC1 cell line is more sensitive to As2O3 than SKOV3 cell line. As2O3 can block cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase, which may be one of the mechanisms of apoptosis induced by As2O3. ......