Objective The purpose of the experiment was to investigate the anticancer activity of As 2O 3 on liver cancer and its mechanism in vitro .Methods The human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell line Bel?7402 and the human normal liver cell line L?02 were treated with As 2O 3 in various concentrations for various days,then observed and analysed by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide(MTT) assay,transmission electron microscopy (TEM),scanning electron microscopy (SEM),flow cytometry (FCM),agarose gel electrophoresis.Results By means of MTT assays, it is found that 0.5~2.0?mg·L 1 As 2O 3 could significantly inhibit the growth of Bel 7402 cell line, but the inhibitation was not obvious for L 02 cells. After 72?h of treatment with 2.0 ?mg·L -1 As 2O 3,under the inspection of TEM, most of the HCC cells displayed typically morphological features of apoptosis. Surface protrusions and blebs were well demonstrated by SEM. The DNA ladder was viewed on the agarose gel electrophoresis. Sub G 1 peaks were recorded in DNA histogram of FCM.The apoptosis rate showed a time and dose dependent feature.Conclusion As 2O 3 has obvious antitumor activity on HCC in vitro .Its mechanism may mainly be inducing liver cancer cells to undergo apoptosis. |