Changes of Caspase-3 in Deferoxamine-Induced Apoptosis of HL-60 Cells

Objective To observe the changes of caspase-3activity during apoptosis of HL-60cells induced by an iron deferoxamine(DFO).Methods Exponentially growing HL-60cells(1×106/mL)were used in this experiment from July 2003to December 2003.The study groups were divided as follows:DFO group,iron+DFO group and control group.The viability was detected by typanblue,apoptosis was assessed by morphological study and flow cy-tometry(FCM)assay,and the caspase-3activity was detected by melorimetry.The intracellular label iron pool(LIP) was measured with a fluorimetric assay using the metalsensitive probe calcein-AM.Results ①When HL-60cells were incubated with different concentrations of DFO,viability assay was lower than that in the control group at the 12th,24th and 48th hour(P0.05).②The cells incubated with different concentrations of DFO showed dose-time dependence and was much higher than that in the control group(P0.01).③The caspase-3activity was significantly higher in the apoptotic cells than that in the control cells.Conclusions The apoptosis of HL-60cells induced by DFO may be correlated with the decrease of cellular LIP and activity of caspase-3.