Different sensitivities of human esophageal cancer cells to multiple anti-cancer agents and related mechanisms.

Mechanisms responsible for drug resistance in human esophageal cancer cell lines were investigated. Three cell lines established from human esophageal carcinoma (TE-1, SH-1, and TH) showed different sensitivities to vindesine, vincristine, cisplatin (CDDP), etoposide (VP-16), and pepleomycin. Both SH-1 and TH cell lines were twofold to sevenfold more resistant to pepleomycin, vindesine, and vincristine than TE-1 was. SH-1 showed twofold more resistance to CDDP than either TE-1 or TH did, and TH and TE-1 showed a 3-fold or 1.5-fold more resistance, respectively, to VP-16 than SH-1 did. The accumulation of tritiated vincristine in SH-1 and TH was approximately 50% that in TE-1. Two multidrug resistance reversal agents, cepharanthine and a synthetic dihydropyridine analogue (NK-252; Nikken Chemicals, Saitama, Japan), potentiated the cytocidal actions of vindesine against SH-1, TH, and TE-1 cells, with no apparent expression of P-glycoprotein in the three cell lines. The glutathione S-transferase pi gene was expressed in all three cell lines. DNA topoisomerase II levels were lowest in TE-1, followed by SH-1 and TH, although the accumulation of tritiated VP-16 was less in both TH and SH-1 than in TE-1. Differential sensitivities to anti-cancer drugs appear to be mediated through pleiotropic mechanisms.