Objective: To evaluate the effect of combination of glutamine (GLN) and mitomycin C (MMC) on the human gastric carcinoma cell line MGC-803 in vitro.
Methods: The effects of GLN and MMC were measured by MTT assay, and the interaction between the two agents was evaluated by the median-effect principle. Flow cytometry was used for cell cycle analysis.
Results: GLN did not significantly stimulate the cell growth in vitro. High-concentration of GLN could inhibit the cell growth. MMC could effectively inhibit the cell growth in a time-dependent manner. The interaction of these two agents showed a weak antagonistic activity (1 < CI < 1.2703). MMC induced remarkable S-phase arrest. Low-dose GLN has limited effect on the S-phase arrest of MMC, while high-dose GLN significantly attenuated the S-phase arrest and lowered the proliferation index of MGC-803 cell.
Conclusions: Combination of GLN and MMC has a a weak and dose-dependent antagonistic activity in the treatment of gastric carcinoma cell line MGC-803. The combination of high-dose MMC and low-dose GLN may achieve better efficacy.