Influence Of Nimesulide On Angiopoietin Expression Of Human Tongue Cancer Xenografts In Nude Mice

OBJCTIVE: To investigate the influence and significance of nimesulide (NIM), a selective cyclooxy-genase-2(Cox-2) inhibitor, on angiopoietin expression of human tongue cancer xenografts in nude mice.METHODS:1. Human Tca8113 tongue cancer cells were cultured until it growed to logarithmic phase. Human Tca8113 tongue cancer cells were inoculated subcutaneously in athymic nude mice to establish xenograft models. The mice were divided into NIM treatment group, NIM prevention group and control group randomly. These group were gived saline or NIM of different times treatment. The changes of tumor caven were monitored, the weight of tumor were recorded. The inhibitory rate was calculated.2. The expressions of angiopoietin-2 (Ang - 2), Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and Cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2) gene in xenografts were measured by semiquantitative reverse transcription - polymerase chain reaction(RT - PCR)analysis.3. The expressions of angiopoietin-2 (Ang - 2), Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) and Cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2) protein in xenografts were measured by Western Blot analysis.RESULTS:1. The growth of tumors were effectively inhibited by NIM in nude mice. The weight of tumor nodles were caltured. the average weight of control group was (4.2956±0.3359) g, NIM prevention group was (1.8705±0.1500) g, NIM treatment group was(2.2661±0.3568) g. NIM treatment group inhibited the xenografts growth significantly and the inhibitory rate was 51.6%, NIM prevention group was 47.2%.2. Expression of Ang - 2, VEGF, Cox-2 mRNA was significantly reduced (P<0.05) in xenografts of NTM treatment and prevention group compared with control group. Thus was not significantly reduced (P>0.05) in xenografts of NIM treatment group compared with NIM prevention group.3. Expression of Ang - 2, VEGF, Cox-2 protein was significantly reduced (P<0.05) in xenografts of NIM treatment and prevention group compared with control group. Thus was not significantly reduced (P>0.05) in xenografts of NIM treatment group compared with NIM prevention group.CONCLUSION: NIM down - regulates the expression of Ang - 2 gene which may be one of the mechanisms involved in angiogenesis inhibition of Cox-2 inhibitor.