Objective: To study the effects of recombinant adenovirus with RA538 or antisense c-myc insert on cervical cancer cell lines with high expression of bcl-2 gene.
Methods: Cervical cancer cell lines HeLa and SiHa were transduced with full length bcl-2 cDNA by lipofectin and cell clones with stable expression of bcl-2 were selected. They were then transfected with recombinant adenovirus containing RA538 (Ad-RA538), antisense c-myc (Ad-ASc-myc) or LacZ (Ad-LacZ) gene. Morphologic and molecular changes of the transfected cancer cells were examined by light microscopy, MTT, RT-PCR and Northern blot.
Results: The bcl-2 cDNA was successfully transferred into HeLa and SiHa cells. Two cell lines, called HeLa-bcl2 and SiHa-bcl2 with high expression of bcl-2 gene were generated. Ad-RA538 and Ad-ASc-myc transfection both could inhibit cell growth and induce apoptosis of HeLa and SiHa cells, and inhibit their expression of c-myc and bcl-2 genes. However, although Ad-RA538 and Ad-ASc-myc had some inhibitory effect on bcl-2 and c-myc gene expression by HeLa-bcl2 and SiHa-bcl2 cells, they could only slightly inhibit cell growth and weakly induce apoptosis.
Conclusion: Ad-RA538 and Ad-ASc-myc can to certain extent inhibit cell growth and induce apoptosis of two cervical cancer cell lines. They have little such effect when these cell lines have over-expressed bcl-2 by transduction of exogenous bcl-2 gene.