[Study on curcumin-induced apoptosis in ovarian cancer resistant cell lines COC1/DDP].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the effect and possible mechanism of curcumin to induce apoptosis in ovarian cancer resistant cell lines COC1/DDP.

METHODS

COC1/DDP cells were treated with different concentration of curcumin, with or without the combination of chemotherapy drugs cisplatin (DDP) and paclitaxel (PIX) for 48 hours. The growth inhibition rates of COC1/DDP cells were studied by MTT method, and the apoptotic ratios were measured with flow cytometry. The expression of phosphoinositide 3-kinase catalytic subunit (PI3KCA) mRNA was studied by RT-PCR in curcumin treated cells, DDP treated cells and their combination treated cells.

RESULTS

After the treatment of different concentration of curcumin for 48 hours, the growth inhibition rates and the apoptotic rate of COC1/DDP cells were gradually increased accordingly with increasing curcumin concentration. Furthurmore, curcumin in combination with chemotherapy drug obtained higher inhibition rate and apoptosis rate than single chemotherapy drug did (P < 0.05). The expression of PI3KCA mRNA of COC1/DDP cells treated with curcumin combined DDP was much lower than that treated only with DDP (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Curcumin can increase the apoptotic rate of COC1/DDP cells, so has synergistic effect on with chemotherapy drugs on the induction of cell apoptosis. Its possible mechanism may be related to the down-regulation of PI3KCA.