Cancer Res Treat.  2003 Feb;35(1):59-65.

Correlation between Retinoic Acid Sensitivity and IGFBP-3, AFP Protein Expression in Hepatoma Cell Lines

• Jung HY
• Lee YM
• Yoo YD
• Kim JS
• Park SH
• Kim YH

Abstract

PURPOSE
Retinoic acid (RA) has been known to inhibit the proliferation, and to induce apoptosis, of various cancer cell lines. We investigated the correlation between the protein levels of the RAR and RXR receptor families, IGFBP-3 and AFP, and the RA sensitivity in hepatoma cell lines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The cell growth inhibition was examined by assaying various 1 to 10muM RA treated hepatoma cell lines. Western blot analysis for the RAR and RXR families, AFP and IGFBP-3 were performed after treatment with 10muM RA. RESULTS: The 1 to 10muM RA treatment induced growth inhibition in the SNU368, SNU354, SNU398 and HepG2 cells. The cell growth of SNU449 and Hep3B were not suppressed by 1muM, but were slightly suppressed by 10muM RA. An increased expression of IGFBP-3 in HepG2, SNU354, SNU398 and SNU368 cells, and a decreased expression of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), was observed from the western blot analysis in all hepatoma cells tested, whereas no confirmed tendency of RAR expressions was seen. CONCLUSION: Our result showed that the growth inhibition of RA differed according to the sensitivity of the type of cells to RA. We supposed that RA-induced cell growth inhibition may be related to the expressions of IGFBP-3 and AFP, but no exact correlation exists between the growth inhibition and receptor expression status in hepatoma cell lines.

Keyword

Retinoic acid; Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3; alpha-fetoprotein; RARs; RXRs; Hepatoma

MeSH Terms

alpha-Fetoproteins
Apoptosis
Blotting, Western
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular*
Cell Line*
Hep G2 Cells
Humans
Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3*
Tretinoin*
Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3
Tretinoin
alpha-Fetoproteins