J Korean Child Neurol Soc.  1998 May;5(2):217-227.

The Effect of All-trans and 13-cis-retinoic Acid in Medulloblastoma and Glioblastoma Cell Culture

• Yoon SH
• Kim SH
• Ahn YH
• Ahn YM
• Cho KH
• Cho KG
• Kim SH

Abstract

PURPOSE: It has been reported that retinoic acid, one of the most popular agents for chemoprevention could inhibit the proliferation of many cancer cells including neuroblastoma and glioblastoma. However, there is increasing demand reaccessing its in vitro inhibitory effect on the tumor proliferation because of the poor results from recent clinical trials of retinoic acid in the malignant brain tumor. Retinoicacid ptomoted the diffferentiation and apoptosis of tumor cell so that its effect might be obvious in the pediatric brain tumor. Therefore we are going to confirm the effectiveness of retinoic acid to inhibit the proliferation of the tumor cells; glioblastoma and medulloblastoma in childhood.
METHODS
Medulloblastoma cells were derived from the primary culture of the patient's specimen, and glioblastoma cells were cell lines of 373-MG and 87-MG. We estimated growth inhibition rate of each tumor cells using MTT assay in the concentration from 10 M to 10((-5))M of all-trans and 13-cis retinoic acid.
RESULTS
13-cis retinoic acid in the concentration of 10 6M inhibited cell growth rate 10-22% on the 4th day of incubation, 10% on the 7th day, and 0-12% on the 14th day in the concentration from 10((-6))M to 10((-5))M. All-trans retinoic acid inhibited cell growth rate less than 5% in the concentration less than 10((-5))M though the whole incubation period, but 42% on the 4th day, 37% on the 7th day, and 0% on the 14th day in the concentration of 10((-5))M. 13-cis retinoic acid inhibited cell growth rate 30% on the 4th day, 20% on the 7th and 14th day in the concentration between 10((-6))M and 10((-5))M. Alltrans retinoic acid inhibited cell growth rate less than 5% on the 4th and 7th day. Medulloblastoma cells showed growth inhibition more than 25% by all-trans and 13-cis retinoic acid in the concentration less than 10((-6))M. 13-cis retinoic acid showed 25% growth inhibition in the concentration above 10((-6))M, but all-trans retinoic acid showed 40% growht inhibition in the same concentration.
CONCLUSION
We could not find the effect of retinoic acid in the glioblastoma cells due to variable responses of the tumor cell growth inhibition in the concentration of maximum tolerable dose. However, there ia a significant inhibitory effect of medulloblastoma cell proliferation both in the 13-cis and all-trans retinoic acid.

MeSH Terms

Apoptosis
Brain Neoplasms
Cell Culture Techniques*
Cell Line
Cell Proliferation
Chemoprevention
Glioblastoma*
Isotretinoin*
Medulloblastoma*
Neuroblastoma
Tretinoin
Isotretinoin
Tretinoin