Mechanism of docetaxel-induced apoptosis in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Abstract

Objective To investigate the effect of docetaxel on the proliferation and apoptosis of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells and explore the mechanism of docetaxel-induced apoptosis. Methods Human hepatoma cells HepG2 and Huh7 were treated with different concentrations of do-cetaxel for different times, and the proliferation of these cells were examined by WST-1 proliferation assay. Hoechst 33342 staining and DNA ladder were used to detect cell apoptosis. The activities of caspase-3 and caspase-9 were investigated by Western blotting. Results Docetaxel inhibited prolifera-tion of hepatoma cells in a dose-and time-dependent manner. Furthermore, DNA ladder formation and fragmented nuclei were showed in hepatoma cells after docetaxel treatment, indicating that docetaxel induced apoptosis in these cells. Moreover, docetaxel induced caspase-3 and easpase-9 activation. And a caspase-3 inhibitor, Z-VAD-FMK, significantly inhibited docetaxel-induced apoptosis in these hepa-toma cells. Conclusions DocetaxeI suppresses the proliferation of hepatoma cells through inducing ap-optosis and the activated caspase-3 might play an important role in this process. Key words: Carcinoma hepatocellular; Docetaxel; Apoptosis