The Effects Of Rare Earth On The Survival Of Cancerous Cells And The Expression Of Their Martix Metalloproteinases

BACKGROUND The invasion and metastasis are the main characters of cancerous cells and play important roles in recurrence. It is reported that this procession is always accompanied with the high expression level of MMPs, especially the MMP-2 and MMP-9 have a very close relation with many pathological damages. Some early studies imply that high level of rare earth has some hereditary toxicity, while low level rare earth may be very effective in cancer therapy. As the research of rare earth goes further every day in the regions of medicine and biochemistry, it will play a more important role in the life science. OBJECT To identify the effects of rare earth on the survival of cancerous cells and the expression of their martix metalloproteinases. CONTENT The effects of cerium on the cell survival of the human bladder carcinoma cell line EJ and the fibrosarcoma HT-1080, the expression and activity of their MMP-9 were observed. The effects of lanthanide on the expression and activity of MMP-2 in the human fibrosarcoma HT~1080, human osteosarcoma MG-63 as well as the osteoblast cells were studied. METHOD The cell survival was tested by MTT, the mRNA of MMPs was assayed by RT-PCR, simultaneously, the Western blot and Zymograph were applied to identify the expression and activity of MMPs. RESULT The results indicate that the higher concentration of rare earth can inhibit the cells growth, whereas the lower concentration of rare earth has no influence on cell growth, but it can inhibits extremely expression and activity of its MMPs, moreover, the effect became stronger as the concentration increased.CONCLUSION Collectively, these results suggest that rare earth is a potent drug to inhibit the carcinoma.