Preliminary study of the in vitro growth inhibition of human bladder cancer cell line BIU-87 by arsenic trioxide.

To study the effects of arsenic trioxide (As2O3) on the in vitro growth of human bladder cancer cells and the mechanisms. The growth inhibition rates of human bladder cancer cell line BIU-87 by various concentrations of As2O3 were detected by using MTT method. Cell apoptosis was detected by in situ terminally labeled transferase technique and bcl-2 gene expression of BIU-87 cells was observed by SABC immunohistochemical method. The results showed that As2O3 could inhibit the growth of BIU-87 effectively in a dose-dependent manner. After drug's action, the apoptotic bladder cancer cells were obviously increased, which depended on the prolongation of the action time and Bcl-2 expression of BIU-87 cells was decreased significantly. It was suggested that As2O3 could significantly inhibit the growth of bladder human cancer cells. Inducing cell apoptosis by down-regulating the expression of bcl-2 gene might be one of its action mechanisms.