Objective: To establish a cytologic expressing system of rat glutathione S-transferase pi (GST-pi) cDNA for detecting the resistance of HeLa cells to anticancer drugs.
Methods: The assessment was made with various anticancer drugs (adriamycin, mitomycin, cisplatinum and vincristine) that showed different cytotoxicities in transfectant HeLa cells with pSV-GT containing rat GST-pi cDNA (HeLa/pSV-GT) or control pSV-neo (HeLa/pSV-neo). Expression levels of GST-pi mRNA in HeLa/pSV-GT and HeLa/pSV-neo were measured by in situ hybridization using Digoxin-labelled cDNA probe.
Results: HeLa/pSV-GT expressed significantly high degree of GST-pi mRNA, whereas both HeLa/pSV-neo and HeLa cells had very low expression. Cytotoxicities of HeLa/pSV-GT and HeLa/pSV-neo with 4 anticancer drugs were measured by MTT assay. Drug concentrations for yielding 50% inhibition (IC50) in HeLa/pSV-GT by adriamycin, mitomycin and cisplatinum were 70.13 microg/mL, 10.95 microg/mL and 16.52 microg/mL, respectively. In contrast, IC50 in HeLa/pSV-neo was 10.34 microg/mL, 7.48 microg/mL and 13.70 microg/mL, respectively. The cytotoxicities of vincristine on both HeLa/pSV-GT and HeLa/pSV-neo were not significantly different.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that HeLa/pSV-GT containing rat GST-pi cDNA is resistant to some anticancer drugs due to overexpression of GST-pi. Also, HeLa/pSV-GT cell line could serve as a useful cytogenetic model for further research.