Coadministration of Sorafenib with Adriamycin Inhibits Cell Proliferation in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells HepG2

Objective: To investigate the inhibitory effect of sorafenib in combination with adriamycin in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 in vitro and explore its possible mechanisms.Methods: HepG2 cells were treated with different concertration of sorafenib or adriamycin alone or their combination.The inhibitory effects were detected by MTT assay,and cycle arrest and apoptosis of HepG2 cells were analyzed by flow cytometry in different groups.Results: Sorafenib or adriamycin used in alone or combination in-hibited the proliferation of HepG2 cells.The inhibiting rates increased with the increasing concentrations of sorafenib or adriamycin alone or their combination,and a synergistic effects was observed in their combined action(P0.01).The combination treatment resulted in significantly higher apoptosis than those in other groups(P0.01).HepG2 cells cycle were blocked in G0-G1 period in Sorafenib or adriamycin alone or their combination.The combination treatment of the cells ratio in G0-G1 period were lower than those of Sorafenib or adriamycin used alone.The percentage of HepG2 cells in S period increased.Adriamycin down-regulate expression of survivin mRNA in HepG2 cells and inducing HepG2 cells apoptosis.Conclusions: A synergistic effect is observed between the sorafenib and adriamycin in their inhibition of HepG2 cell proliferation and inducing cell apoptosis,the mechanisms of which may involve synergistic effect of in-hibition with many pathway.