Study On Differentiation Effect Of Glioblastoma Cell Line BT325 Induced By Arsenic Trioxide

[Objective] To study the differentiation effect of glioblastoma cell lineBT325 induced by low-dose As₂O₃.[Methods] The morphological phenomena were observed by HE stain andelectron microscope. Three tumor differentiation marker glial fibrillary acidicprotein(GFAP), S-100 and Vimentin were observed by ABC immunocytochemistry,as well as cell cycle contribution was analyzed by flowcytometry after the cell lineBT325 had been induced by arsenic trioxide for three weeks.[Results] BT325 cell become larger with affluent cytoplasma and with lowcytoplasmic ratio, as well as with apparent longer and bigger processes afterinduced by As₂O₃ for three weeks,and it looks like normal astrocyte. Nucleus,membrane, mitochondrial and ER(endoplasmic reticulum) are more regular in theexperimental groups than which in the control group while observed under electronmicroscopy. By immunocytochemistry stain analysis, we found that while theconcentration of As₂O₃ is 0,0.1,0.2,0.4,0.8μmol/L , the positive rate of GFAP(%)is 8.09±3.62,20.09±6.21,40.51±6.12,51.54±7.27 ,61.65±10.85 , and S-100,is 11.47±4.87,22.71±6.81,29.82±5.82,46.64±6.78,54.96±15.82 respectively,which shows they are strongly positive for GFAP and S-100 in a dose-dependentmanner, there is a significant statistical difference between control group andexperimental groups(p<0.05). However, they are weakly positive for Vimentin, thepositive rate(%)is 10.96±5.66,7.56±7.86,10.18±5.33,9.13±3.22,10.53±4.92respectively, the statistical difference is not significant (p>0.05). As analyzed cellcycle, As₂O₃ is found to promote a shift in the cell population into G0/G1 phasewith equivalent decreased in the percentage of cells in S phases. The distribution ofcell cycle in G₀/G₁ phases(%)is 17.0±2.00,21.3±3.51,48.3±10.40,51.0±3.60,70.0±2.00 , while the concentration of As2O3 is 0,0.1,0.2,0.4,0.8μmol/Lrespectively, the experimental groups have a significant statistical differencecompared with control group (p<0.05). [Conclusion] As2O3 can induce differentiation in BT325 cell in adose-dependent manner. As2O3 is a potential differentiation inducer for glioma.