Experimental study on the relationship between Nrf2 expression and cisplatin induced apoptosis in esophageal cancer cells

HOU Lei; ZHAO Yongli; HE Li; CAO Fei; BAI Jun

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1009-0460.2018.02.003

Abstract：Objective To investigate the relationship between nuclear factor E2 related factor 2(Nrf2) expression and the apoptosis of esophageal cancer cells induced by cisplatin. Methods Eca-109 cells transfected with Nrf2-siRNA were used as interference group,and the cells transfected with si-NC were used as negative control group,and cells without treatment were used as blank control group. MTT method was used to calculate the half inhibitory concentration (IC50 ) of 3 groups in response to cisplatin. After exposure to10 mg/L cisplatin for 24 h, flow cytometry was used to detect the apoptotic rates of 3 groups. The expression of caspase-3 protein was detected by Western blotting. Results The expression of Nrf2 in the interference group was 0.14±0.02,which was lower than that of the negative control group and the blank control group (0.61±0.07 and 0.57±0.04), and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05). MTT analysis showed that IC50 in blank control group, negative control group and interference group were 15.29,14.02 and 8.87 mg/L, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). After cisplatin (10 mg/L) treatment for 24 h,the cell apoptotic rates of blank control group, negative control group and interference group were (18.12±2.36)％,(17.04±2.21)％ and(28.07±2.44)％, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05); The expressions of caspase-3 protein were 0.72±0.03,0.73±0.05 and 1.02±0.17,and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion The decrease of Nrf2 expression increases the ability of cisplatin to induce apoptosis in Eca-109 cells, having the potential as the target for chemosensitity to cisplatin in esophageal cancer.