Abstract:

Objective To investigate the effects of COX-2 antisense oligonucleotide （AsODN） on the proliferation and expression of COX-2 in human skin squamous cell carcinoma cell line Colo-16. Methods The COX-2 AsODN was synthesized artificially, and various concentrations（50, 100, 200, 400 nmol/L） of the AsODN were transfected into Colo-16 cells with lipofectin followed by additional culture for different durations. The transfection results were observed with fluorescence microscopy. Subsequently, MTT assay, Western blotting and reverse transcription PCR were used to detect the cell proliferation, protein and mRNA expression of COX-2 in Colo-16 cells, respectively. Results Compared with untreated cells, the proliferation of Colo-16 cells was inhibited significantly at 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours after transfection with different concentrations of COX-2 AsODN （all P < 0.05）, and the COX-2 AsODN of 400 nmol/L exerted the highest inhibition rate of 60.3% at 48 hour. The average gray scale was 0.763 ± 0.070, 0.600 ± 0.065, 0.430 ± 0.074 and 0.251 ± 0.045 for COX-2 protein, 0.778 ± 0.025, 0.602 ± 0.041, 0.417 ± 0.031 and 0.297 ± 0.051 for COX-2 mRNA in Colo-16 cells transfected with COX-2 AsODN of 50, 100, 200, and 400 nmol/L respectively, significantly lower than that in untreated Colo-16 cells （all P < 0.05）; there was a significant difference in the expression of COX-2 protein and mRNA among the cells transfected with the four concentrations of COX-2 AsODN and untreated cells （F = 83.54, 132.48, respectively, both P < 0.05）. Conclusions COX-2 AsODN can inhibit the proliferation, as well as the expression of COX-2 protein and mRNA in Colo-16 cells, which suggests that COX-2 AsODN has a potential therapeutic effect on skin squamous cell carcinoma.