Preliminary study on the arsenic trioxide-induced NB4 cell apoptosis and its molecular mechanisms

Objective: To illustrate the possible cellular and molecular mechanisms of arsenic trioxide (As2O3) in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL).

Methods: APL cell line NB4 was used for in vitro studies. The effect of As2O3 on APL was studied by using flow cytometry, DNA electrophoresis, Narthern blotting and Western blotting.

Results: As2O3 induced NB4 cell apoptosis, while not inhibiting the growth and survival of two other leukemic cell lines (HL-60 and U937). Furthermore, As2O3 effectively down-regulated the expression of bcl-2 gene without changing the mRNA levels of other apoptosis-associated genes (including p53, c-myc, bax and bcl-XL).

Conclusions: These might be one of the molecular mechanisms of As2O3 induced NB4 cell apoptosis.