Brief Reports
Copyright ©2005 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 14, 2005; 11(22): 3446-3450
Published online Jun 14, 2005. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v11.i22.3446
Adenovirus-mediated FasL gene transfer into human gastric carcinoma
Shi-Ying Zheng, De-Chun Li, Zhi-De Zhang, Jun Zhao, Jin-Feng Ge
Shi-Ying Zheng, Jun Zhao, Jin-Feng Ge, Department of Cardio-thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Suzhou University, Suzhou 215006, Jiangsu Province, China
De-Chun Li, Zhi-De Zhang, Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Suzhou University, Suzhou 215006, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Correspondence to: Dr. Shi-Ying Zheng, Department of Cardio-thoracic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Suzhou University, Suzhou 215006, Jiangsu Province, China. syzheng88@sina.com
Telephone: +86-512-65263570
Received: June 19, 2004
Revised: June 20, 2004
Accepted: July 22, 2004
Published online: June 14, 2005
Abstract

AIM: To evaluate the possible value of FasL in gastric cancer gene therapy by investigating the effects of FasL expression on human gastric cancer cell line.

METHODS: An adenoviral vector encoding the full-length human FasL cDNA was constructed and used to infect a human gastric cancer (SGC-7901) cell line. FasL expression was confirmed by X-gal staining, flow cytometric analysis and RT-PCR. The effect of FasL on cell proliferation was determined by clonogenic assay, cytotoxicity was detected by MTT assay, and cell viability was measured by trypan blue exclusion. The therapeutic efficiency of Ad-FasL in vivo was investigated with a xenograft tumor model in nude mice.

RESULTS: SGC-7901 cells infected with Ad-FasL showed increased expression of FasL, resulting in significantly decreased cell growth and colony-forming activity when compared with control adenovirus-infected cells. The cytotoxicity of anti-Fas antibody (CH-11) in gastric cancer cells was stronger than that of ActD (91±8 vs 60±5, P<0.01), and the cytotoxicity of Ad-FasL was stronger than that of CH-11 (60±5 vs 50±2, P<0.05). In addition, G1-phase arrest (67.75±0.39 vs 58.03±2.16, P<0.05) and apoptosis were observed in Ad-FasL-infected SGC-7901 cells, and the growth of SGC-7901 xenografts in nude mice was retarded after intra-tumoral injection with Ad-FasL (54% vs 0%, P<0.0001).

CONCLUSION: Infection of human gastric carcinoma cells with Ad-FasL induces apoptosis, indicating that this target gene might be of potential value in gene therapy for gastric cancer.

Keywords: FasL gene; Gene transfer; Apoptosis; Carcinoma; Gastrocellular; Gene therapy