Involvement of Oxidative Stress in Cisplatin-Induced Apoptosis in HeLa Cells.

Ko, Kyoung Hee; Kim, Shin Ho; Cho, Hae Joong; Oh, Seong Hwan; Kim, Heung Gon; Park, Rae Gil

Original Article

Korean Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology 2003;46(12):2410-2416.
Published online December 1, 2003.

Involvement of Oxidative Stress in Cisplatin-Induced Apoptosis in HeLa Cells.

Kyoung Hee Ko, Shin Ho Kim, Hae Joong Cho, Seong Hwan Oh, Heung Gon Kim, Rae Gil Park

¹Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, Wonkwang University, Iksan, Korea.
²Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Wonkwang University, Iksan, Korea.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
To determine whether oxidants are formed as part of the cisplatin-induced apoptotic process, intracellular markers of oxidative stress were examined. METHODS: Apoptotic death of HeLa cells by cisplatin was confirmed by flow cytometry. RESULTS: The pre-treatment with glutathione (GSH) significantly attenuated cisplatin-induced apoptosis through the reduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and diminished caspases-3 and 9 protease activity. Furthermore, z-VAD-fmk, an inhibitor of pan-caspase, effectively inhibited the activation of caspases and prevented apoptosis by cisplatin, although cisplatin-induced ROS generation was not attenuated. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that ROS may play a role as an upstream mediator of caspases. Taken together, our results suggest that oxidative stress mediates cisplatin-induced apoptosis in HeLa cells.

Key Words: Cisplatin, HeLa cells, Apoptosis