Effects of norepinephrine on proliferation and apoptosis of human HepG2 and L-02 cells in vitro

SHI Yuanping; LUO Guanghua; ZHENG Lu; WEI Jiang; YU Yang

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2017.47.002

Abstract：Objective To observe the effects of norepinephrine (NE) on the proliferation and apoptosis of human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 and human normal liver cell line L-02.Methods HepG2 and L-02 cells were cultured in vitro and were treated with different concentrations of NE.Cell proliferation and apoptosis were examined by MTT assay and flow cytometry,respectively.Cell morphology was observed by HE staining and Annexin V-FITC/PI staining.Results After treatment with 0.1,1,10,and 50 μ mol/L NE for 24 and 48 h,the OD value of HepG2 cells decreased significantly (all P ＜ 0.05),while the OD value of L-02 cells had no significant change.HepG2 cells treated with 10 μnol/L NE showed obvious apoptotic morphology:there was contracted and stained cytoplasm,as well as condensed chromatin.L-02 cells had no significant changes in morphology before and after NE treatment.After adding 10 μmol/L NE to HepG2 cells,the cells showed a green color (early apoptosis).After addition of 50 μmol/L NE,some of the cells showed a green membrane and a red nucleus (which is a sign of late apoptosis).No fluorescence was observed in the L-02 cells.The apoptotic rates of HepG2 cells treated with 0.1,1,and 10 μmol/L NE for 24 h were significantly higher than those of the control group (0 μmol/L NE) with a dose-dependent manner (all P ＜ 0.05).However,the apoptosis rate of L-02 cells treated with the above concentrations of NE for 24 h increased first and then decreased (all P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion NE inhibits the proliferation and induces apoptosis of HepG2 cells,but has no effect on the proliferation and apoptosis of L-02 cells,suggesting that it may have potential value in the clinical treatment of specific types of hepatic carcinoma.