Background: Cisplatin is a well-known platinum-containing anti-cancer drug against bladder, ovarian, lung and testicular cancer. However, the potential effects and molecular targets of cisplatin in human mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) are not fully understood. Here, we investigated the apoptotic effect and underlying mechanism of cisplatin in human MEC cells.
Methods: The potential effects of cisplatin were evaluated by trypan blue exclusion assay, Western blotting, 4’-6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining, live/dead assay and immunocytochemistry.
Results: Cisplatin suppressed cell growth and enhanced expression of cleaved PAPR in MC3 and YD15 cells. Cisplatin caused morphological change of nuclei and increased the number of ethidium homodimer-1-stained cells. In addition, cisplatin commonly increased Bax activation in both cells, while other Bcl-2 family proteins were not affected.
Conclusions: These results suggest that cisplatin might induce apoptosis by activating Bax protein, which would provide baseline data for development of effective treatment strategy against MEC.

• 유현주(전북대학교 치의학전문대학원 구강병리학교실, Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Chonbuk National University) | Hyun-Ju Yu
• 조남표(전북대학교 치의학전문대학원 구강병리학교실, Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Chonbuk National University) | Nam-Pyo Cho
• 정요셉(서울대학교 수의과대학 수의발생학교실, Department of Developmental Biology and Genomics, College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University) | Joseph H. Jeong Correspondence
• 신지애(전북대학교 치의학전문대학원 구강생체과학연구소, Institute of Oral Bioscience, School of Dentistry, Chonbuk National University) | Ji-Ae Shin Correspondence