GENERAL SURGERY——Breast The effect of HO-1 activated via P38α pathway in the genesis and chemotherapy resistance of breast carcinoma

Objective To investigate the role of p38a pathway and HO-1 in the genesis and chemotherapy resistance of breast cancer. Methods The proliferation and apoptosis of human breast cancer cells were examined by MTT assay. The expression of p38a and HO-1 mRNA were examined by RT-PCR. Results The p38a mRNA level in 78 % of samples was significantly greater than that in the normal tissue and the p38a mRNA level in patients with lymph node metastasis was higher than that without lymph node metastasis （P 〈 0.01 ）. The HO-1 activated with 5 μmol/L pirarubicin increased more in MCF-7/adr cells than in MCF-7 cells, and was completely blocked by p38a inhibitor in MCF-7/ADR but only partially in the MCF-7 cell line.