[Effect of a selective COX-2 inhibitor on cell proliferation and apoptosis in human gastric cancer cell line BGC-823].

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of a selective COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib on cell proliferation and apoptosis of gastric cancer cell line BGC-823 to seek an effective and safe drug for gastric cancer chemoprevention. METHODS: Gastric cancer cell line BGC-823 was cultured to 80% fusion. MTT assay and flow cytometry were used to quantify the influence of celecoxib in the proliferation, cell period, and apoptosis of gastric cancer cell line BGC-823. The expression of p21 and Fas by RT-PCR were investigated on gastric cancer cell line BGC-823 by the effect of different celecoxib concentrations. RESULTS: Growth of BGC-823 cells was inhibited by celecoxib in a dose-and time-dependent manner (P<0.05).Flow cytometry showed that celecoxib increased the proportion of cells in G1 phase, whereas decreased the proportion of cells in S phase and increased the apoptotic rates of cells in a concentration-dependent manner from 0 to 100 micromol/L in gastric cancer cell line BGC-823 (P<0.05). RT-PCR detection showed that the treated BGC-823 cells had increased the expression of p21 and Fas, which was also in a dose-dependent manner (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Celecoxib inhibited cell proliferation and apoptosis of human gastric cancer cell line BGC-823, which may be related to blocking the cell cycle progress by increasing the expression of p21 and inducing the apoptosis of gastric cancer cells by increasing the expression of Fas.