The Susceptibility of
Leukemia Cells to Arsenic Trioxide-induced Apoptosis is Determined by Cellular
Reactive Oxygen Species Level
GAO Fei, YI Jing, SHI Gui-Ying, LI Hui, JIN Hui-Fang, SHI
Xue-Geng, TANG Xue-Ming*
( Department of Cell Biology,Shanghai Second Medical University, Shanghai 200025,
China )
Abstract To explore
the relationship between the susceptibility to arsenic trioxide (As2O3)-induced
apoptosis of leukemia cells and the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) of
cells, flow cytometry and electron microscopy were applied to identify
apoptosis, and dihydrorhodamine123 was used to display the ROS level of cells.
As2O3 alone or in combination with
2,3-dimethoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone (DMNQ, 2.5 μmol/L for NB4 cells, 10 μmol/L for
U937 cells) were used to induce cell apoptosis. The results showed that NB4
cells possessed higher level of ROS than U937 cells. DMNQ raised ROS levels of
NB4 and U937 cells, sensitized U937 cells to As2O3-induced
apoptosis, and enhanced the efficacy of As2O3-induced
apoptosis of NB4 cells. Catalase reversed the effect of DMNQ on NB4 and U937
cells. It was concluded that the susceptibility of leukemia cells to
arsenic trioxide-induced apoptosis is determined by ROS level in the
cells.
Key words arsenic trioxide；apoptosis；reactive oxygen species
*Corresponding author： Tel, 86-21-63846590-421； e-mail, [email protected]