Mechanism of multidrug resistance of human small cell lung cancer cell line H446/VP

Background Small cell lung cancer （SCLC） is the most aggressive form of lung cancer. This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of human small cell lung cancer cell line resistance to etoposide （VP-16）, H446NP. Methods The cell viability was measured by MTT assay. Immunocytochemistry, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction （RT-PCR） and Western blotting methods were used to detect the multidrug resistance gene （MDR1）, bcl-2, bax and the topoisomerase Ⅱ （TopoⅡ） expressions in H446 and H446NP cells after treated with or without VP-16. Results The 50% inhibition concentration （IC50） of VP-16 on H446 cells was 49 mg/L, and 836 mg/L was for H446NP cells. The expressions of MDR1 and bcl-2 were up-regulated, while the amounts of bax and Topo II were reduced in H446NP cells. After treated with 49 mg/L of VP-16, it showed that the drug could significantly inhibit bcl-2 and Topo fl expressions, and increase bax expression in H446 cells compared with that of H446NP cells. Conclusions The H446NP cell was stably resistant to VP-16. The decreased expression of Topo II was correlated with the H446NP multidrug resistance. The elevated expressions of MDR1, and the altered apoptotic pathways also played an important role in VP-16 induced multidrug resistance of SCLC.