%0 Journal Article %A HIROKO OKAMURA %A HITOSHI FUJIWARA %A SEIJI UMEHARA %A SHINICHI OKAMURA %A MOMOKO TODO %A AKINOBU FURUTANI %A MASAYUKI YONEDA %A ATSUSHI SHIOZAKI %A SHUHEI KOMATSU %A TAKESHI KUBOTA %A DAISUKE ICHIKAWA %A KAZUMA OKAMOTO %A TOSHIYA OCHIAI %A CHOUHEI SAKAKURA %A YOSHITAKA TAKAHASHI %A TANIHIRO YOSHIMOTO %A EIGO OTSUJI %T COX-2 Overexpression Induced by Gene Transfer Reduces Sensitivity of TE13 Esophageal Carcinoma Cells to 5-Fluorouracil and Cisplatin %D 2013 %J Anticancer Research %P 537-542 %V 33 %N 2 %X Previous clinicopathological studies demonstrated that overexpression of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is associated with a poor treatment response of esophageal carcinoma. The aim of this study was to elucidate the role of COX-2 overexpression in the chemosensitivity of esophageal carcinoma cells. TE13 human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells were transfected with a COX-2 constitutive expression vector, and stable transfectants overexpressing COX-2 were established. COX-2 overexpression in COX-2 transfectants was confirmed with western blotting and prostaglandin-E2 (PGE2) assay. Chemosensitivity testing revealed that sensitivity of COX-2 transfectants to 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin was significantly lower than in control vector-only transfectants, and that sensitivity of COX-2 transfectants was restored by the transfection of COX-2-specific siRNA. In addition, expression of antiapoptotic B-cell lymphoma-extra large (BCL-xL) and myeloid cell leukaemia-1 (MCL-1) was increased in COX-2 transfectants. These results indicate that COX-2 overexpression may reduce the chemosensitivity of esophageal carcinoma cells through up-regulation of the expression of antiapoptotic BCL-2 family proteins. %U https://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/anticanres/33/2/537.full.pdf