Effect of and mechanism indomethacin on prostate cancer cell line DU145 proliferation and apoptosis

Objective To investigate the effects of indomethacin on androgen-independent prostate cancer cell line DU145 proliferation and apoptosis.Methods DU145 cells were treated with different concentrations of indomethacin(0、125、250、500 μmol/L).The effects of indomethacin on anti-proliferration,cell cycle arrest and apoptosis induction were observed with MTT assay and flow-cytometry,;PGE2 level in the culture supernatant was measured by ELISA;RT-PCR method was used to examine the expression level of apoptosis-related genes Bcl-2 and bax.Results Indomethacin inhibited DU145 cell proliferation in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner(P0.05).The cells in S phase increased,in G2/M phase decreased and appeared obvious apoptosis peaks on exposure to indomethacin.The release of PGE2 were inhibited(P0.001).Indomethacin also decreased the expression of bcl-2 gene and increased the level of bax gene,the ratio of bcl-2 to bax decreased(P0.05).Conclusion Indomethacin can inhibit DU145 cell proliferation,arrest cells in S phase and induce cell apoptosis.The mechanism may be relate with the inhibitory effect on PGE2,also relate with down-regulation of the expression of Bcl-2 gene and up-regulation of the expression of bax gene.