Effects of gastrin/CCK -B receptor signaling on growth and apoptosis in selected cancer cell lines

WANG Chuang; ZHOU Jian-jiang; XIE Yuan; ZHAO Yan

Abstract：Objective To investigate the effects of gastrin/CCK-B receptor signaling on cell growth and apopto-sis in liver cancer, lung cancer and breast cancer cell lines.Methods Expression of gastrin and CCK-B receptor was detected in hepatocarcinoma HepG2 cells, lung carcinoma A549 cells and breast cancer MCF-7 cells by immunocyto-chemistry.After treatment of 5 mmol/L proglumide (experimental groups), a CCK -B receptor antagonist, the cell growth curve, apoptosis and caspase-3 activity were detected by MTT assay, flow cytometry and spectrophotometry, re-spectively.The control groups were not treated with proglumide.Results The liver cancer HepG2 cells, lung cancer A549 cells and breast cancer MCK-7 cells showed positive expression for gastrin and CCK-B receptor.After proglumide treatment, cell growth was significantly inhibited, and caspase-3 activity and percentage of apoptotic cells significantly increased in all of the experimental groups compared with the control groups (P<0.05 or P<0.01).Conclusion Gas-trin/CCK-B receptor signaling is involved in the cell growth and apoptosis in hepatocarcinoma, lung carcinoma and breast cancer and blocking of the signal pathway can inhibit cell growth and promote apoptosis.