The Effect Of Iron-chelator On The Expression Of Apoptosis-related Genes Including Bax And Survivin In Leukemia Cells

Objective To explode the mechanism of iron-chelator as an potential anti-neoplastic agent for the treatment of leukemia through inducing apoptosis of leukemia cells, the effect of iron-chelator DFO on the expression of apoptosis-related genes including bax and survivin in leukemia cells K562 was evaluated.Methods Leukemia cells K562 were cultuered with DFO in different time and various concentrations. The effect of DFO on the apoptosis of K562 cells was detected by agarose gel electrophorsis,and the expression level of bax mRNA and survivin mRNA was measured by RT-PCR. Results 1. Classical DNA ladder was clearly observed after treated by DF0.2.When K562 cells were incubated with 50uM DFO for 24h 48h, 72h, the expression of bax mRNA in 48h group and 72h group was obviously higher than that of the control group (p<0.01,p<0.01) ,that of survivin mRNA lower than the control group (p<0.05,p<0.01) and show time-dependent.K562 cells incubated with different concentrations of DFO for 48h , the expression of bax mRNA in 50uM DFO group and lOOuM DFO group was greatly higher than that of the control group(p<0.01,p<0.01),that of survivin mRNA lower than the control group (p<0.05,p<0.01) and show dose-dependent.There was no statistic difference between DFO+FeCl3 group and the control group in both the expression of bax mRNA and that of survivin mRNA.Conclusions Iron-chelator can induce apoptosis of leukemia cells .Iron-chelator inducing apoptosis of leukemia cells may be related to upregulating the expression of bax mRNA and downregulating survivin mRNA.