Human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 is associated with the chemosensitivity of gemcitabine in human pancreatic adenocarcinoma and biliary tract carcinoma cells

• DOI: 10.3892/or.17.5.1201
• Publication Date: 2014-03-10T03:50:17Z
• Authors: Ryutaro Mori; Takashi Ishikawa; Yasushi Ichikawa; Koichi Taniguchi; Ryusei Matsuyama; Michio Ueda; Yoshiro Fujii; Itaru Endo; Shinji Togo; Peter Danenberg; Hiroshi Shimada
• Keywords: Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic; Ribonucleoside Diphosphate Reductase; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Tumor Suppressor Proteins; Adenocarcinoma; Deoxycytidine; Gemcitabine; 3. Good health; Equilibrative Nucleoside Transporter 1; Pancreatic Neoplasms; 03 medical and health sciences; Biliary Tract Neoplasms; 0302 clinical medicine; Cell Line, Tumor; Cytidine Deaminase; Deoxycytidine Kinase; Humans; RNA, Messenger

Gemcitabine has been one of the most commonly used agents for pancreatic adenocarcinoma chemotherapy, but the determinants of the sensitivity of and resistance to this agent are not yet fully understood. In this study with pancreatic carcinoma and biliary tract carcinoma cell lines, we examined the gene expression levels of nucleotide transporters and others related to the metabolism of gemcitabine in the light of sensitivity to this agent. Quantitative RT-PCR demonstrated that one of the nucleotide transporter genes; human equilibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (hENT1) was associated with the sensitivity to gemcitabine as represented by IC50, while the other genes for nucleotide transporter and metabolism were not. We conclude that increased hENT1 expression is a most important determinant of gemcitabine sensitivity at least in an in vitro study.