To explore the effect of the extracellular ATP and its receptors on axon regeneration in the sciatic nerve defect in rats, 0.5 cm defect of the sciatic nerve was made and repaired with long arm silicon tube like a “Y” type. The single arm of the silicon tube was sutured to proximal of the sciatic nerve. 10 μl 1 mmol/L ATP in physiological saline was injected into the left chamber of the silicon tube (experimental group) and physiological saline injected into another silicon tube as a control group. In another model 1 mmol/L 10 μl ATP and 1 mmol/L 10 μl ATP+0.2 mg/ml suramin were injected respectively into two arms of the silicon tube. After 4 and 8 weeks the specimens were obtained from the silicon tube for examining the axon regeneration histologically and image analysis. All the regeneration axons grew into the silicon tube containing the ATP, but there was no axon regeneration in the silicon tube containing the ATP+Suramin or physiological saline. It was demon-strated that extracellular ATP had a powerful attraction to the regenerated axon of peripheral nerve. The suramin inhibited the axon induction of the extracellular ATP completely via the ATP receptors.

To study the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ(PPAR-γ) in lung cancer cells, and to testify if the PPAR-γ agonists can inhibit human lung cancer cell growth through induction of apoptosis, PPAR-γ was detected in two lung cancer cell lines by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry, the inhibition of human lung cancer cell growth was investigated by MTT and cell counts, and the apoptosis was assessed by TUNEL. The results showed that: (1) PPAR-γ expressed on two lung cancer cell lines; (2) PPAR-γ activated by ligands could inhibit human lung cancer cell growth remarkably; (3) PPAR-γ agonists could induce apoptosis to inhibit lung cancer cell growth. It was concluded that PPAR-γ expressed in lung cancer cell can be activated by ligands and can inhibit lung cancer cell growth through induction of apoptosis.

In order to explore the molecular mechanisms of sodium butyrate and trichostain A on K562 cell proliferation/differentiation, K562 cells were grown in the absence or presence of sodium butyrate or trichostatin A. The percentage of viable cells was determined by trypan blue exclusion. Differentiation was determined by nitro-blue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction and cell surface adhesion molecules analyzed by FACS. Cell cycle distribution was studied after DNA staining by propidium iodide. Cell cycle regulatory proteins were detected by Western blot and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The results showed that sodium butyrate blocked cells mainly at the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle, whereas trichostatin A arrested the cells at G2 phase. Sodium butyrate could down-regulate the mRNA expression of cyclin D1, but not affect its protein expression, down-regulate the protein expression of cyclin D3, but not affect its mRNA expression. Trichostatin A showed similar effects on cyclin D1 and D3 as sodium butyrate. Both sodium butyrate and trichostatin A could stimulate p21 expression of K562 cells at mRNA and protein levels. It may be concluded that sodium butyrate and trichostatin A could promote the proliferation/differentiation of the K562 cells, which might be contributed to the induced expression of cyclin D3 and p21 proteins.

To evaluate the specific inhibition of antisense u-PAR on the u-PAR expressions in highly invasive cell subclones and to determine its blocking function in the invasion by those cells, a cDNA fragment of u-PAR obtained by RT-PCR was inserted into a plasmid vector named pcDNA3 in antisense orientation. Then the antisense u-PAR recombinant was transfected into highly invasive cell subclones. The u-PAR expression inneo-resistant cells was examined by RT-PCR and immunohistochemical assay. Compared to the control cells, the content of mRNA and protein of u-PAR in transfected cells decreased sharply, and the rate of inhibition was 53% and 73%, respectively, indicating that an antisense u-PAR might have played a specific inhibitory role in its expression in the cells, which may provide a good cell model for making further investigation of the inhibitory effects of the antisense u-PAR on invasion in highly invasive cell subclones of human prostate carcinoma.