Abstract: Objective To investigate whether cisplatin could induce senescence in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).Methods Four ESCC cell lines (ECA109, EC9706, TE-1, TE-3) and one normal esophageal epithelial cell line (Het-1a) were analyzed for this study. Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting were employed to detect the mRNA and protein expression of p53 and differentiated embryo-chondrocyte-expressed gene1 (DEC1) in ESCC cell lines. MTT and senescence associated β-galactosidase were used to explore an appropriate cisplatin concentration to induce proliferation inhibition and cellular senescence in TE-3 cell line. Further, Western blotting was employed to detect the expression of DEC1 and p53.Results In this study, we identified that p53 had a lower expression compared with normal esophageal epithelial cells by testing mRNA and protein expression of different esophageal cancer cell lines, while the expression of DEC1 had a higher expression. MTT assay showed that cisplatin inhibited the growth of TE-3 in a dose-and time-dependent manner. Combined MTT with senescence associated β-galactosidase, 4uM and 48 hours were chosen as most appropriate condition to induce cellular senescence. Elevated levels of senescence associated β-galactosidase were observed in TE-3 cells when exposed to low doses of cisplatin. TE3 cell experienced morphological changes following drug exposure accompanied with up regulation of DEC1 and p53.Conclusion Our results revealed that cisplatin could induce cellular senescence in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Meanwhile, p53 and DEC1 may be involved in this process.

Key words: esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, cellular senescence, DEC1, p53, cisplatin