A Preliminary study on arsenic trioxide as an inducer of apoptosis in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line

The effect of arsenic trioxide(As₂O₃)on human hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)cell line SMMC-7721 was studied by using MTT acridine orange(AO)/ethidiumbromide(EB)flurescent stainning and flow cytometry assays.The results showed that As₂O₃cou-ld significantly inhibit the growth of HCC cells in vitro.After treatment with As₂O₃,the cell's morphologic changes we-re consistent with the characteristics of apoptosis under nurescence microscopy and the sub-G₁ peaks were observed by flow cytome-try assays.It suggested that As₂O₃can induce human HCC cell line SMMC-7721 to undelgo apoptosis,and so As₂O ₃may have a potential value in clinically treating HCC.