Cell cycle arrest and the induction of apoptosis in pancreatic cancer cells exposed to adenosine triphosphate in vitro
- Authors:
- Published online on: January 1, 2002 https://doi.org/10.3892/or.9.1.113
- Pages: 113-117
Metrics: Total
Views: 0 (Spandidos Publications: | PMC Statistics: )
Total PDF Downloads: 0 (Spandidos Publications: | PMC Statistics: )
Abstract
Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) has been shown to be an inhibitory or a stimulatory agent for cell growth in various types of cells. Here, we studied the effects of extracellular ATP on two pancreatic cancer cell lines, PK-1 and YAPC established by us. In both cell lines, ATP inhibited cell growth in a time- and dose-dependent manner, whereas the same doses of ATP stimulated DNA synthesis. Flow cytometric analysis of the cells incubated with or without ATP demonstrated the ATP-induced striking increase in cells at S-phase. The same analysis showed also the increase in sub-G0/G1 population in the same analysis and the electrophoretic pattern of DNA showed the occurrence of ATP-induced cell disintegration likely to be apoptosis. We suggest that extracellular ATP is cytotoxic for pancreatic cancer cells because of its induction of cell cycle arrest at S-phase and cell death, possibly apoptosis, overcoming the promotion of the entry into S-phase.
