Abstract:

Objective   To investigate the photodynamic effect of PSD-007 on human breast neoplasm cell line MCF-7 in vitro. Methods  MTT assay was performed to examine MCF-7 cells treated with different concentrations of PSD-007 and different intensities of laser. Different intensities of laser (1.2, 2.4, 4.8J/cm2) were applied to treat MCF-7 cells with 10μg/mL of PSD-007. The morphological changes of MCF-7cells were observed with comet assay and DAPI staining. The cellular apoptosis rate and cell cycle phase distribution of MCF-7 cells were measured with flow cytometry (FCM). The relative expressions of Bcl-2, Bax, and Caspase-3 proteins were detected with Western blotting. The blank control group, pure laser group and pure photosensitizer group were established as controls. Results  Significant differences in the inhibitory effects were observed (P<0.05). The comet figure significantly observed the comet tail. The morphological study found that multinucleate giant cells existed in the apoptotic cells in PSD-007 PDT. The FCM assay showed that the apoptosis rates were obvious and the killing effect improved with the intensity of laser (P<0.05). The Results   of cell cycle analysis revealed a significant increase of the number of cells in G0/G1 phase. Compared with the control groups, Caspase-3 and Bax expressions were markedly up-regulated in the experiment groups, while Bcl-2 expression was significantly down-regulated. Conclusion  PSD-007 has a photodynamic effect on human breast carcinoma cell line MCF-7 in vitro, which is closely associated with Caspase-3, Bcl-2 and Bax.

Key words: Breast neoplasm, Carcinophotorin, Photodynamic therapy, MCF-7 Cells