Role Of Nitric Oxide On Inductive Effects Of 5-fluorouracil On Human Pancreatic Tumor BXPC-3 Cell Line

ObjectiveTo know the role of nitric oxide on inductive effects of 5-fluorouracil on human pancreatic tumor BXPC-3 cell line.Methodshuman pancreatic tumor BXPC-3 cell line was cultured under routine conditions. The activity of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) induced by 5-fluorouracil was evaluated by NOS Test Kit. The production of nitric oxide (NO) induced by 5-fluorouracil with sufficient L-Arginine ( L-Arg ) added in the medium was measured by NO Test Kit. Under the different content of NO, the quantity of apopto-sis cells was recorded by flow cytometry and the morphology of apoptosis cells was observed by using electronic microscope. Oneway analysis of variance and t test was applied for statistical analysis.Results5-fluorouracil can increase NOS activity (5-Fu group (14. 51 +7. 11) umol/L, control group (5.26 +2. 18) umol/L ,P <0.05). With sufficient L-Arg , the content of NO in 5-FU + L-Arg group was (595. 8 +29.20) jxmol/L, the apoptosis of the cells in 5-FU + L-Arg group was (14.54 + 3.12) % , significantly higher than that of the other groups (P <0. 05). Nw - nitro - L-Arginine methyl ester ( L - NAME) , the antagonist of L-Arg , can block the changes ofthose phynomena.Conclusions5-fluorouracil can enhance the activity of NOS and increase the production of nitric oxide the medium with enough L-Arg. The high concentration of NO can induce the apoptosis of pancreatic tumor cells. The sensitivity of the pancreatic tumor cells to 5-fluorouracil was increased following increased production of nitric oxide.