Abstract

Using recently established 8 SNU human hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines and Hep 3B cell line, we performed in vitro chemosensitivity test using semiautomated tetrazolium-based colorimetric(MTT) assay. We also measured the MDRl gene expression of these cell lines by measuring MDR1 RNA level using slot blot analysis. IC values(concentration of chemotherapeutic agent which produces 50% growth inhibition of tested cells) were in the range of 1.92~5000 ↑ ug/ml for 5-fluorouracil, 0.24~32.00 ug/ml for doxorubicin, 0.16-10.29 pg/ml for mitomycin-c, 2.00~16.56 ug/ml for cisplatin, 1.15-182.32 ug/ml for etoposide, and 0.002 ↓L -24 ↑ug/ml for vincristine. Assay area under the curve(A-AUC) at IC: values showed that only A-AUC of VP-16 was in a clinically achievable range for only one of the 9 cell lines. All other drugs were out of the range of clinically achievabie AUC. Three cell lines(SNU-354, SNU-368, SNU-449) were MDR-positive. When these 3 cell lines were compared to MDR-negative cell lines, IC value for doxorubicin was significantly higher (P<0.05), suggesting that high expression of MDRl gene is responsible for doxorubicin resistance in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines.

• Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines, In Vitro chemosensitivity, MDRl gene expression