Drug resistance of hepatoma cells induced by ATP‑binding cassette transporter G2 by reducing intracellular drug concentration.

The side effects and drug resistance during chemotherapy seriously affect the outcome of and may lead to the failure of chemotherapy for patients with hepatoma. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between the expression of ATP-binding cassette transporter G2 (ABCG2) in hepatoma cells and the drug resistance of hepatoma. An MTT assay was used to determine the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC) of Adriamycin (ADM) in hepatoma HepG2 cells after treatment with ADM for 24 h. An ADM-resistant hepatoma cell subline, HepG2/ADM, was generated from the HepG2 hepatoma cell line through a stepwise selection with ADM doses from 0.01 to 0.1 µg/ml. The HepG2/ABCG2 cell line, an ABCG2-overexpressing hepatoma cell line, was established by transfecting the ABCG2 gene into HepG2 cells. The MTT assay was then used to detect the IC of ADM in HepG2/ADM and HepG2/ABCG2 cells after treatment with ADM for 24 h and the resistance index was calculated. The apoptosis, cell cycle and ABCG2 protein expression levels in HepG2/ADM, HepG2/ABCG2 cells, HepG2/PCDNA3.1 and their parental HepG2 cells were detected by flow cytometry. In addition, flow cytometry was used to detect the efflux effect of HepG2/ADM and HepG2/ABCG2 cells after ADM treatment. ABCG2 mRNA expression in cells was detected by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. After 3 months of ADM treatment, HepG2/ADM cells grew stably in the cell culture medium containing 0.1 µg/ml ADM and the cells were named HepG2/ADM cells. ABCG2 was overexpressed in HepG2/ABCG2 cells. The IC of ADM in HepG2, HepG2/PCDNA3.1, HepG2/ADM and HepG2/ABCG2 cells was 0.72±0.03, 0.74±0.01, 11.17±0.59 and 12.75±0.47 µg/ml, respectively. The cell apoptotic rate of HepG2/ADM and HepG2/ABCG2 cells was not significantly different compared with that of HepG2 and HepG2/PCDNA3.1 cells (P>0.05), but the G/G phase population of the cell cycle decreased and the proliferation index increased significantly (P<0.05). The expression levels of ABCG2 gene and protein in HepG2/ADM and HepG2/ABCG2 cells were significantly higher than those in HepG2 and HepG2/PCDNA3.1 cells (P<0.01), but there was no significant difference between HepG2 and HepG2/PCDNA3.1 cells (P>0.05). The ADM efflux effect of HepG2/ADM and HepG2/ABCG2 cells was significantly higher than that of parental HepG2 and HepG2/PCDNA3.1 cells (P<0.05). Therefore, the present study demonstrated that ABCG2 expression is highly increased in drug-resistant hepatoma cells and that high expression of ABCG2 is involved in the drug resistance of hepatoma by reducing the intracellular drug concentration.