Experimental study on inhibitive effect of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, celecoxib, on lung adenocarcinoma

Objective: To observe that celecoxib, a selective inhibitor of cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2),in vitro and in vivo, inhibited proliferation of cell line of lung cancer. Methods: Antiproliferative effect was obtained by MTT assay. Flow cytometry was used to analyze the effect of celecoxib on cell cycle. Nude mice bearing lung cancer xenografts were administered with celecoxib, and then the weight of implanted tumors was measured. The apoptotic cells in implanted tumors were stained by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) technique. Results: There was a does-dependent inhibition of cell proliferation by celecoxib. IC50 is 50 umol/L. Celecoxib may induce a G0/G1 cell cycle arrest, inhibited the G1 cells to S phrase transition. The average weight of tumor nodules in control group was (2.1567±0.9750) g, while in the experimental group it was (0.9783±0.5423) g, with the inhibitive rate being 54.64%. There is statistical difference (P0.05). Apoptosis of transplanted tumor cells showed that apoptotic index (AI) of the control group was (1.58±0.61), while in the experimental group it was (9.50±2.51), showing significant difference(P0.05). Conclusions: Celecoxib shows suppressive effect on adenocarcinoma cells of lung. Induction of G0/G1 cell cycle arrest and apoptosis might be its important mechanisms.