Potassium Antimonyl Tartrate Induces Apoptosis In Human Gastric Carcinoma Cells

Objective To investigate the effects of potassium antimonyl tartrate (PAT) on human gastric carcinoma cells(SGC-7901) and its possible mechanism.Methods Human gastric carcinoma line SGC-7901 cells were used as experimental object in vitro.PAT of different concentrations was added into the media.Cell culture without addition of PAT was used as control. The growth inhibitory rates of SGC-7901 cells with various concentrations of PAT in different time course(24, 48, and 72 hours after) were analyzed under using MTT assay. The nuclei were stained by Hoechst 33 258 and the morphologic changes were observed by fluorescence microscope .Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay, AnnexinV-FITC/PI staining flow cytomery were used to detect apoptosis of cells.Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of Bcl-2 protein and Bax protein. Statistical analysis was carried out by SPSS 10.0 software.Results PAT inhibited the growth of gastric carcinoma SGC-7901 cells in a dose and time- dependent manner (P<0.01) .Cell growth was suppressed by 9.6%, 38.4%, 54.1 %, 66.6% after 72 h treatment with PAT at 5, 10, 20 and 40 u mol/L, respectively. Compared with the control group, The test group cells stained with Hoechst 33 258 showed apoptotic features including nuclear shrinkage or fragmentation under fluorescence microscopy.Cells treated with PAT were single AnnexinV postive, and control cells were double negative. SGC-7901 cells were treated by PAT at the concentrations of 5,10 and 20 mol/L for 24 hours, the apoptosis rates were 3.4%, 8.2%,12.9%,respectively. The apoptosis rates were increased in a dose-dependent manner (P<0.01) . Apoptotic morphology was also detected by TUNEL assay,and apoptosis indexes were increased in a dose-dependent manner(P<0.01) . The expression of Bcl-2 was reduced and the expression of Bax was unproved after PAT treatment (P<0.05) .Conclusion PAT can inhibit the proliferation and induce apoptosis of SGC-7901 cells. This apoptosis may be mediated by down expression of Bcl-2 and up expression of Bax.PAT may be a promising apoptosis-inducer in gastric cancer therapy.