Effect Of Gold Nanoparticles On Improving Adriamycin-resistant Of Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma HepG2/ADM Cells

Objective To investigate whether gold nanoparticles reverses multidrug resistance of human hepatocellular carcinoma drug-resistant cell line Hep G2/ADM and to explore potential mechanisms involved.Methods Firstly, GNPs was prepared by chemosynthesis and investigated using UV-Vis spectrophotometer and transmission electron microscopy(TEM). Then we divided HepG2 and HepG2/ADM cells into HepG2 group, HepG2/ADM group, HepG2/ADM+SFM group and HepG2/ADM+GNPs group: the sensitivity of HepG2 and HepG2/ADM cells to adriamycin were tested by MTT assay before and after GNPs pretreatment; the concentration of ADM, the content of GSH and the expression of P-glycoprotein(P-gp) in each group were determined by Ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer(UV-Vis) or by DTNB method or by Western blot. The apoptotic rate of HepG2/ADM cells after GNPs treatment was tested by flow cytometry method(FCM).Results The half maximal inhibitory concentration(IC50) of HepG2/ADM cells to ADM was(29.46±1.73)μg/mL and(15.18±0.85)μg/mL before and after GNPs pretreatment; the IC50 of HepG2 cells to ADM was(9.16±2.03) μg/mL before pretreatment; the concentration of ADM in HepG2/ADM group(2.57±0.20) μg/L was lower than that in HepG2 group(4.03±0.17) μg/L(P<0.01); the concentration of ADM in HepG2/ADM+GNPs group(3.85±0.13)μg/L was higher than that in HepG2/ADM+SFM group; the content of GSH in HepG2/ADM group(0.276±0.004) μmol/L was higher than that in HepG2 group(0.230±0.007) μmol/L(P<0.01); the content of GSH in HepG2/ADM+GNPs cells(0.244±0.012) μmol/L was lower than that in HepG2/ADM+SFM group; the expression of P-glycoprotein(P-gp) in HepG2/ADM group was higher than that in HepG2 group; GNPs may not affect the expression of P-glycoprotein(P-gp) in HepG2/ADM cells. The apoptotic rate of GNPs+ADM group(34.90±1.22)% was higher than that of ADM group(27.20±2.38)%(P<0.05).Conclusions Gold nanoparticles can reduce the content of GSH, increase the concentration of ADM in HepG2/ADM cells and reverse the multidrug resistance of human hepatocellular carcinoma drug-resistant cell line HepG2/ADM.