Modelo experimental de apoptosis "in vitro" en células HEP-2: el paclitaxel como agente inductor / Experiental model of apoptosis in vitro with HEP-2 cells: paclitaxel inducing agent

RESUMO

Apoptosis is an active form of cell death that can be observed both in physiological and pathological conditions. The apoptotic process (programmed cell death) can be studied "in vivo" and "in vitro" conditions. It is a programmed and organized energy dependent response to cellular media changes, and sometimes it requires genetic expression The typical morphological changes of apoptosis are condensation of the cytoplasm and the nuclear chromatin, early cytoplasmatic blebs, DNA degradation preferentially between the nucleosomes and generation of apoptotic bodies. The aim of this paper is to describe an experimental model of apoprosis using Hep-2 cul-tured cells, and as inductor agent a culture medium solution with Paclitaxel at the concentra-tion of 5 (M/ml during 20 hours. Paclitaxel is a potent antitumor drug which acts by stabilizing microtubules (irreversible tubulin polymerization), preventing normal mitosis, and resulting in a blockage of the cell cycle at G2 - M and cell death from apoptosis. In the present work, we could appreciate the presence ofi apoptotic cells, cells blocked in mitosis, multinucleated interphase cells, and cells resembling controls. Our findings support the use of Paclitaxel for the development of experimental model of apoptosis "in vitro".