Effect of Ribosomal Protein L6 on Drug Resistance and Apoptosis in K562/A02 Cells

The objective of study was to investigate the effect of ribosomal protein L6 (RPL6) gene expression on the drug resistance of leukemia cells and its possible mechanism. RPL6 cDNA was obtained by RT-PCR, both sense and antisense cDNA recombinants of RPL6-encoding gene were constructed with pcDNA3. 1(+) expression vector. Subsequently , the sense RPL6 cDNA recombinant was transfected into K562 cells while the antisense one into K562/A02 cells by liposomal reagent. The chemosensitivity, apoptosis and caspase-3 activity of K562 and K562/A02 cells were evaluated by MTT assay, flow cytometer and fluorometer respectively. The results indicated that expression of RPL6 in K562/A02 was higher than that in K562; resistance of sense-transfected K562 cells to doxorubicin was 325% of control cells, apoptosis and caspase-3 activity decreased (P0.005); whereas resistance of antisense-transfected K562/A02 cells to adriamycin was 38% of control cells, apoptosis and caspase-3 activity significantly increased (P0.005). It is concluded that RPL6 gene plays an important role in the development of drug resistance in K562/A02 cells by changing drug-induced apoptosis.