Granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor enhancing drug resistance of gastric cancer cells by inhibiting apoptosis

Objective By detecting the effects of granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) on the apoptosis of gastric cancer cells induced by fluorouracil (5-FU), the mechanism of GM-CSFinvolved in drug resistance of gastric cancer cells was preliminarily explored. Methods The gastric cancer SGC7901 cells were cultured in vitro, and the semi-lethal dose of 5-FU on gastric cancer cells was detected by MTT assay. GM-CSF was added to 5-FU-treated gastric cancer cells. The effects of cell proliferation and clonal proliferation were detected by MTT and plate cloning assay. Apoptosis was detected by Annexin V-FITC/PI flow cytometry. Western blotting was used to detect the expression differences of apoptosis-related proteins Bax and Bcl-2. Results The semi-lethal dose of 5-FU to gastric cancer cells was (16±0.4) mg/L.5-FU could inhibit the activity and proliferation of gastric cancer cells, which could be effectively weakened by GM-CSF (P<0.05). 5-FU induced apoptosis of gastric cancer cells significantly, Bax/Bcl-2 ratio was significantly increased, while GM-CSF could reverse these trend (P<0.05). Conclusion GM-CSF can promote the proliferation of gastric cancer cells and effectively inhibit the apoptosis of gastric cancer cells induced by 5-FU, and plays an important role in enhancing the chemoresistance of gastric cancer cells. Key words: Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor; Stomach neoplasms; Apoptosis; Drug resistance, neoplasm; Fluorouracil