EFFECTS OF INTERFERON-ALFA-2a ON HUMAN HEPATOMA HepG2 CELLS
O. Ozgur, S. Karti, M. Sonmez, M. Yilmaz, D. Karti, F. Ozdemir, E. Ovali
School of Medicine, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Turkey
Abstract. In the present work, the effect of interferon-alfa-2a on human hepatoma HepG2 cells has been studied. HepG2 cells were cultured with different concentrations of IFN-a of for 7 days, and then apoptotic and proliferative indexes were evaluated. It has been shown that upon such incubation, hepatoma cells were arrested in G0/G1 phase; proliferative indexes were found to be decreased significantly and apoptosis rate was increased at IFN-a concentrations of 50 U/ml and 100 U/ml compared to the control (29% ± 4.5% and 27% ± 4.6% vs 44% ± 3.2%, p < 0.01; and 34% ± 9.6% and 43% ± 22% vs 0.8% ± 1.3%, p < 0.01 respectively). Colony counts per well decreased significantly at IFN-a concentrations of 100 U/ml compared to control. Clinical relevance of these finding remain to be established with further studies.
