Establishment and partial characterization of an epirubicin-resistant gastric cancer cell line with upregulated ABCB1.

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major impediment to successful chemotherapy of gastric cancer. Our aim was to establish an epirubicin-resistant cell subline (AGS/EPI) and to elucidate the mechanisms involved in acquired EPI resistance. The AGS/EPI cell subline developed by exposing parental AGS cells to stepwise increasing concentrations of EPI demonstrated 2.52-fold resistance relative to the AGS cell line, and mRNA expression of the ATP-dependent drug-efflux pump P-glycoprotein (Pgp), more recently known as ABCB1 protein, was similarly upregulated. An AGS/EPI cell subline could thus be effectively established, and MDR mechanism of these cells was shown to be related to the overexpression of mRNA of the ABCB1 gene.