Abstract:Objective To establish a gemcitabineresistant rat pancreatic cancer cell line RPC/ GEM and investigate its biological characteristics.
Methods A gemcitabineresistant rat pancreatic cell line was obtained by gradient increase of concentration, and repeated exposure to high doses of gemcitabine for 10 months. The morphological features and growth characters of RPC/GEM were examined. Flow cytometry assay was used to evaluate the cell cycle distribution of both RPC/GEM and its parental cell line RPC. Its sensitivity of drug resistance and cross resistance were observed by MTT assay.
Results A gemcitabineresistant rat pancreatic cell line RPC/GEM was succeeded in establishing. Both RPC/GEM and RPC cells were observed by light microscope，that showed there were larger numbers of malformed nuclei in RPC/GEM cells. RPC/GEM cells grew more slowly than RPC cells and their population double time was 7.9 hours, which was longer than RPC cell line. Cell cycle distribution of RPC/GEM cells was changed compared with the parental cells. The percentage of cells in G0/ G1phase increased to 68.82 %±1.42 %, and G2/ M phase decreased to 4.35 %±1.71 %. The resistance index of RPC/GEM cells to etoposide was 37.1 and the cells showed various cross resistance to 5Fu、MTX and CTX.
Conclusions A multidrug resistant rat pancreatic cancer cell line RPC/GEM was established. RPC/GEM cell line was found to possess the basic characteristics of drug resistance and can be used for further experiments.