Synergistic effect of all-trans-retinoic acid and arsenic trioxide on growth inhibition and apoptosis in human hepatoma, breast cancer, and lung cancer cells in vitro

Table 1 Basal activities of GSH or GST and As₂O₃+ ATRA or As₂O₃-induced apoptosis in different cell lines (mean±SD)

Cell lines	GSH	GST	As2O3	Apoptosis (%)
				As2O3+ATRA (10 μmol/L)	As2O3+ ATRA (1 μmol/L)
HepG2	60.7 ± 7.1	22.3 ± 1.4	29.3 ± 3.2	61.1 ± 5.6	48.4 ± 4. 1
Hep3B	62.4 ± 5.4	21.4 ± 2.8	27.3 ± 6.5	57.1 ± 4.9	49.3 ± 4.2
MCF-7	76.0 ± 5.1	31.0 ± 2.6	22.6 ± 3.3	45.5 ± 3.0	40.2 ± 3.3
AGZY-83-a	104.8 ± 8.1	50.6 ± 4.5	19.0 ± 3.8	40.8 ± 5.6	32.9 ± 3.0

Table 2 Effect of As₂O₃ on intracellular GSH levels (mean±SD)

Cell lines	Control	ATRAa	As2O3c	As2O3+ATRAe
HepG2	60.7 ± 7.1	54.4 ± 4.9	46.7 ± 9.0	26.8 ± 4.4
Hep3B	62.4 ± 5.4	55.6 ± 0.5	35.3 ± 3.0	25.9 ± 3.6
MCF-7	76.0 ± 5.1	69.9 ± 1.7	52.5 ± 2.4	44.1 ± 3.8
AGZY-83-a	104.8 ± 8.1	99.8 ± 9.4	89.8 ± 5.6	80.4 ± 1.0

^aP > 0.05,

^cP < 0.05 vs the control cells,

^eP < 0.05 vs As₂O₃-treated cells.

Table 3 Changes in intracellular GST activities (mean±SD)

Cell lines	Control	ATRAa	As2O3c	As2O3+ATRAe
HepG2	22.3 ± 1.4	21.2 ± 1.7	5.5 ± 1.8	8.6 ± 2.3
Hep3B	21.4 ± 2.8	20.4 ± 4.4	8.6 ± 1.8	10.3 ± 3.4
MCF-7	31.0 ± 2.6	29.7 ± 3.0	16.4 ± 1.6	19.3 ± 1.4
AGZY-83-a	50.6 ± 4.5	49.3 ± 4.7	36.3 ± 0.9	39.3 ± 3.1

^aP > 0.05,

^cP < 0.05 vs the control cells,

^eP > 0.05 vs As₂O₃-treated cells.