Short Low Concentration Cisplatin Treatment Leads to an Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition-like Response in DU145 Prostate Cancer Cells

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Prostate cancer is one of the main causes of cancer death, and drug resistance is the leadingreason for therapy failure. However, how this occurs is largely unknown. We therrfore aimed to study the responseof DU145 cells to cisplatin. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: Du145 prostate cancer cells were treated with a low doseof cisplatin for 24 h and cell viability and number were determined by MTT assay and trypan blue exclusionassay, respectively. The real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to assess responses to cisplatintreatment. <br/><b>Results</b>: After 24h 2 μg/ml treatment did not result in significant reduction in cell viability or number.However, it led to enhanced cancer cell invasiveness. E-cadherin mRNA was reduced, and vimentin, Snail, Slug,metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) mRNA expression increased significantly, a feature of epithelial-mesenchymaltransition (EMT). <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: Short time low concentration cisplatin treatment leads to elevated invasivenessof DU145 cancer cells and this is possibly due to EMT.