Autophagic apoptosis induced by docetaxel in cervical cancer HeLa cells

AIM:To observe autophagic apoptosis induced by docetaxel in cervical cancer HeLa cells in vitro,and explore its potential molecular mechanism. METHODS:Cervical cancer HeLa cells in vitro were treated with docetaxel of different concentrations (1,5,10,20,40 μg/mL) and different time (6,12,24,48,72 h). The growth inhibiting of HeLa cells was observed by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium(MTT) assay. Inverted microscope and electron microscopy were used to observe cell morphological changes. The apoptosis ratio and cell cycle were determined by flow cytometry(FCM). The expression of autophagy gene Beclin 1 was examined by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) technique. RESULTS:Docetaxel inhibited the proliferation of cervical cancer HeLa cells in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manner(P0.05). Analysis indicated that after treatment with 10 μg/mL of docetaxel for 24 h,HeLa cells showed typical morphology of autophagy by inverted microscope and electron microscopy. Using flow cytometry,observed that the number of apoptotic cells were greatly increased,and G2/M phase was blocked. Moreover,detected by means of RT-PCR showed that the expression of autophagy gene Beclin 1 was enhanced in HeLa cells. CONCLUSION:Docetaxel can inhibit proliferation and induce autophagic apoptosis in cervical cancer HeLa cells. The autophagic apoptosis induced by docetaxel is related to upregulating the expression of autophagy gene Beclin 1.