Treatment of osteosarcoma with a combination of TRAIL and doxorubicin

Objective To explore the role of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) and the curative effectiveness of TRAIL combined with doxorubicin (ADM) in the treatment of osteosarcoma.Methods Cytotoxicity was examined by MTT assay.Cell apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry.The expression of TRAIL receptors was measured by RT-PCR.Results The inhibitory rate of HOS-8603 cells treated with 0.5 mg/L TRAIL, 1.0, 10.0 and 100.0 mg/L ADM alone were 13.18%, 5.56%, 23.02% and 76.72% respectively.The inhibitory rate of cells treated with 0.5 mg/L TRAIL combined with 1.0, 10.0 or 100.0 mg/L ADM was 42.98%, 53.12%, 81.91% respectively. 0.5 mg/L TRAIL and 1 mg/L ADM had synergistic cytotoxin effects in combination treatment.Conclusion TRAIL in combination with subtoxic doxorubicincould jointly kill HOS-8603 cells,which might be contributed to the up-regulation of TRAIL R2 expression.